Stephen Dillane and Clémence Poésy have been cast as the co-leads in The Tunnel, a new crime drama from Sky Atlantic and Canal+.
The series is an Anglo-French reworking of the Scandinavian hit The Bridge, transplanting that show’s premise to the Channel Tunnel. When a prominent French politician is found dead on the border between the UK and France, detectives Karl Roebuck and Elise Wassermann are sent to investigate on behalf of their respective countries. A shocking discovery at the scene forces the two police forces into an uneasy partnership as they hunt a politically motivated killer.
Dillane, of Game of Thrones, takes the role of Roebuck, the British detective, while Poésy, of Birdsong, plays his French counterpart Wassermann. Much of the drama turns on the friction and growing rapport between the pair as they work across the cultural and procedural divide, with the series billed as the first fully bilingual production made jointly for British and French television.
A ten-part series, The Tunnel is produced by Kudos Film and Television and Shine France Films in association with Filmlance, with a writing team led by Ben Richards and direction from Dominik Moll. Filming is due to begin shortly, ahead of a broadcast later in the year.