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EastEnders' Ben Hardy to lead new BBC One drama

Photo credit: Mike Marsland / Getty Images
Photo credit: Mike Marsland / Getty Images

From Digital Spy

Former EastEnders star Ben Hardy is coming back to the BBC to tell one of the most haunting stories in literary history.

Hardy has landed the lead role in BBC One and The Silence writer Fiona Seres's adaptation of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, long thought to be one of the first-ever psychological thriller novels.

In Victorian Era London, young school teacher Walter Hartright (Hardy) stumbles on a strange mystery as he encounters what appears to be a female spirit dressed completely in white.

Walter's obsession with solving the mystery of this strange woman's existence leads him into a dangerous world of forbidden romance and possible insanity.

Photo credit: Scott Free Prods/Robert Viglasky
Photo credit: Scott Free Prods/Robert Viglasky

(Jessie Buckley in Taboo)

The impressive cast for the BBC's The Woman in White will include Taboo's Jessie Buckley as the enterprising Marian Halcombe, as well as Game of Thrones' Charles Dance, Apple Tree Yard actress Olivia Vinall, Dougray Scott of Fear the Walking Dead and Upstairs Downstairs actor Art Malik - to name only a handful.

"I have always admired and been a fan of the BBC's period dramas and I'm so thrilled to be playing the leading role of Walter in this classic story," Hardy announced today (February 22).

Hardy most famously played Peter Beale for two years on BBC One's EastEnders, and more recently took Hollywood by storm as the Archangel in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Photo credit: 20th Century Fox
Photo credit: 20th Century Fox

(Ben as the Archangel)

The Woman in White showrunner Fiona Seres also celebrated the commission: "[This] is a powerful, poignant story and I have absolutely loved adapting this epic for the screen.

"I'm thrilled it's attracted such an exciting, high-calibre cast who I know will bring it to life in a unique and intimate way."

The BBC has adapted The Woman in White multiple times in the past - mostly famously with a 1997 version starring The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln as Walter Hartright.

Production on five 60-minute episodes of this latest version is under way now in Belfast.


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