With 24 returning as the London-set event series 24: Live Another Day, Fox’s revival of the real-time thriller looks like a real opportunity for British actors.
Kiefer Sutherland is back as Jack Bauer, resurfacing in London four years after going on the run. Because the production is both set and shot in the UK capital, much of the supporting world around Bauer, the CIA’s London station, the British government and the people behind the central threat, looks set to be filled by home-grown talent rather than imported from Los Angeles.
Stephen Fry has already been lined up to play the British Prime Minister, going head to head with William Devane’s US President James Heller as the season’s drone-strike crisis unfolds. With the story still told in the show’s trademark clock-ticking format, the limited run gives a string of UK performers a high-profile shop window on a major American series.