Hugh Laurie Is ‘The Wanted Man’ for Apple TV
The crime drama will premiere in January 2027.
Apple TV has become a reliable home for Anglophile-friendly fare in recent years, from crime dramas like Criminal Record to spy thrillers like Slow Horses and biting comedies like Bad Sisters. Now the streamer has released a first look at its next buzzy crime drama: The Wanted Man.
The six-part series comes from Hijack creator George Kay and follows a crime boss plotting his escape from a notorious prison after one of his own men rats him out. Bonus: it stars Hugh Laurie (Why Didn't They Ask Evans?), a British acting institution that many U.S. viewers still don’t realize hails from the United Kingdom because he spent so many years playing Dr. Gregory House with an American accent.
Laurie plays Felix Carmichael, head of a powerful London crime syndicate called The Capital. (Do all organized crime groups get such cool names, or only the British ones?) Essentially untouchable for over two decades, he’s finally captured and arrested after a tip from someone trying to take over his criminal empire. But, as everyone knows, you can’t keep a good criminal mastermind down, and Felix is determined to both escape the notorious prison he’s held in and get revenge on those who put him there.
If this all sounds a bit like his role in The Night Manager (minus the prison bits), well, you’re not entirely wrong. But Laurie’s great at playing intelligent criminal antihero types, which seems to be another thing British actors are simply born knowing how to do.
Here’s the series synopsis.
When organized crime boss Felix Carmichael is betrayed by someone inside his own firm and sent to the notorious Staplehurst prison, he’s forced to remember his own brutality to fight for survival. With his family, firm and fortune at stake, Felix resolves to do the unthinkable: escape.
(Photos: Apple TV)
Alongside Laurie, the series also stars Thandiwe Newton (Line of Duty), Fionn Whitehead (Great Expectations), Gina McKee (My Policeman), Hazel Doupe (Say Nothing), Elliott Heffernan (Blitz), and Stephen Dillane (Sherwood).
Kay wrote the six-part series, with director Jakob Verbruggen (The Fall) helming all installments. Kay and Laurie also serve as executive producers, alongside Willow Grylls (War) and Matt Sandford (Gone). David Meanti (Andor) is series producer.
The Wanted Man will premiere globally on Apple TV on Wednesday, January 6, 2027, with the first two episodes, followed by one episode every Wednesday through mid-February.
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