BBC One has set the cast for The Secret Agent.
Toby Jones (Wayward Pines), Vicky McClure (Line Of Duty), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) and Ian Hart (The Driver) have been set as the leads in the thee-part drama, which hails from Line Of Duty indie World Productions and is based on the Joseph Conrad novel of the same name.
The Secret Agent is set in London in 1886 and follows Soho shopkeeper Verloc, who, unbeknownst to his wife, works as a secret agent for the Russian government. Angry that Britain harbours violent anarchists, the Russians coerce Verloc into planting a bomb that will provoke the authorities into cracking down on these extremists. Caught between the Russians and the British police, Verloc reluctantly draws his own family into a tragic terror plot.
Toby Jones has been cast as Verloc, whose seedy Soho shop hides his role as an agent of the Russian Embassy; Vicky McClure as Winnie, Verloc’s previously loyal wife; Stephen Graham as Chief Inspector Heat, Verloc’s adversary; and Ian Hart as the dangerously unpredictable Professor. Tom Goodman-Hill (Humans), David Dawson (Ripper Street), Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Love/Hate) and Raphael Acloque (Pushaway) also star.
The three-parter was adapted for television by Garrow’s Law scribe Tony Marchant and was commissioned earlier this year by BBC One Controller Charlotte Moore and the former Controller of Drama Commissioning Ben Stephenson. Priscilla Parish is the series producer, while World Productions’ Creative Director Simon Heath and the BBC’s Poly Hill will executive produce. Charles McDougall is attached to direct.
