BBC One has set its leads for The Long Song, casting Tamara Lawrance and Hayley Atwell in its adaptation of Andrea Levy’s novel. The three-part drama is set in nineteenth-century Jamaica during the final years of slavery.
Lawrance, who has appeared in King Charles III and Undercover, plays July, a strong-willed young woman born into slavery on a sugar plantation. The story is told from July’s perspective as she looks back over her life across a time of upheaval, taking in the slave rebellion of the early 1830s and the coming of emancipation. Atwell, of Agent Carter, plays July’s mistress, the plantation owner Caroline Mortimer.
Jack Lowden joins them as Robert Goodwin, a charming new overseer who arrives with idealistic plans for the estate, while Lenny Henry plays Godfrey. The cast also includes Sharon Duncan-Brewster as July’s mother Kitty and Doña Croll as the older July who narrates the tale.
Based on the novel that won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction, The Long Song has been adapted by Sarah Williams and is produced by Heyday Television. Mahalia Belo directs.