Yahoo News Former Death in Paradise star Kris Marshall lands role in ITV's Jane Austen drama Sanditon
Ardal O'Hanlon may have felt like an unexpected replacement for Kris Marshall in Death in Paradise, but now it's Marshall's turn to surprise fans.
Two years after leaving the sunny – albeit murderous – streets of Saint Marie, Marshall will soon be starring in an upcoming adaptation of Jane Austen's final written work.
New series Sanditon, which is set to air on ITV, will be an eight-part take on the author's final and incomplete novel of the same name. Expect romance and frolics aplenty.
Kris will be joining Curfew's Rose Williams, Downton Abbey's Theo James and Last Tango in Halifax's Anne Reid in the new series, which is to be headed up by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies, whose credits include Les Misérables and Pride and Prejudice.
So yes, your new favourite period drama is in incredibly safe hands.
Sanditon, which will begin shooting in Bristol, will follow Williams' Charlotte Heywood, a spirited and typically Austen-esque heroine, as she embarks on an unlikely relationship with the charming Sidney Parker (James) in a sleepy seaside town.
Marshall will star as the Parker patriarch Tom, who's billed as an enthusiastic and happily-married man whose driving vision is to put Sanditon on the map.
"Full of energy and charm", the character is set to be a "risk-taker" whose penchant for taking chances might just get him into more trouble than first thought.
Sanditon screenwriter Davies praised the series' "brilliant" ensemble cast, adding he was "very excited" to be working on the adaptation.
"It's been such fun to develop Jane Austen's fragment into a series – now I'm eager to see our exceptional cast bring Sanditon to life," he declared.
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