EXCLUSIVE: With production ramping up on the third season of BBC One’s drama series Luther, I’ve learned that the BBC has tapped British actress Orlessa Altass for a guest role. Altass’ casting follows on from the recent announcement that Sienna Guillory was joining the main cast of Luther for its four episode third season playing the new love interest for John Luther (Idris Elba). In the show’s third season, John Luther is back under intense pressure, with two conflicting crimes to investigate and a ruthless ex-copper determined to bring him down. Luther’s life is his job; that is until love crosses his path and offers him a chance of happiness.
BBC One’s one-off military drama Our Girl has also booked a number of guest stars. Fiona Skinner, Lucy Briers, Branwell Donaghey and Harriet Madeley have all filmed guest spots opposite main star Lacey Turner (EastEnders). Penned by Tony Grounds, Our Girl tells the story of Molly Dawes (Turner), the eldest of five kids with little future, a difficult father and a mother who always wanted more for her. Born and raised in the London Borough of Newham,she leaves school with no qualifications and finds a part-time job in a local nail bar. Drunk and despondent on the evening of her 18th birthday, she throws up in the doorway of an Army Recruitment Office. She doesn’t know it then, but it’s an action that will change her life forever as she goes from nobody to a soldier in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and the onto her final arrival in Afghanistan.
Over on BBC Two, the channel’s upcoming 1920’s gangster drama Peaky Blinders – produced by Caryn Mandabach Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions – has secured a slew of guest stars. Samuel Edward Cook, Natasha O’Keeffe, David Dawson and Aimee-Ffion Edwards are all set to appear on the six episode series. In addition, as TVWise reported last month, John Paul Hurley has also signed on to appear on the series in a guest role. Created by Steven Knight, Peaky Blinders is set in Birmingham in 1919 and follows the extended Shelby family whose many brothers, sisters, cousins and uncles make up the fiercest gang of post-war Birmingham: the ‘Peaky Blinders.’ The gang got their name for their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, and they make their money from off track betting, protection and robbery. The gang is led by Tommy, the most ruthless brother of them all, whose leadership is about to be put to the test. A ruthless new police chief arrives in town from Belfast to clean up the city and, perhaps more lethally, a beautiful woman arrives in the neighborhood with a mysterious past and a dangerous secret.
