Sharpe actor joins cast of major new BBC1 drama
Sean Bean will star in a new drama set during World War Two to be screened on BBC1, it’s been announced.
The former Bond baddie, whose TV credits include Sharpe, Game of Thrones and Broken, will join Inbetweeners actor Blake Harrison in the drama by award winning writer Peter Bowker.
Sean, 59, says: “I am thrilled to be part of this ambitious drama. Peter Bowker’s study of the human stories that thread through this huge global conflict is fascinating and something I look forward to being part of on screen”.
World on Fire is billed as an “adrenalized, emotionally gripping and resonant drama” which is set during the first year of the 1939-45 conflict.
Other key cast include Oscar winning actress Helen Hunt, Mum star Lesley Manville, Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women, Howard’s End) and Julia Brown (The Last Kingdom).
The story is told through the lives of ordinary people drawn from Britain, Poland, France, Germany and America.
Talking about the plot, Peter says: “World On Fire tells the hidden human stories within the big historical events we think we know. From Harry, a young English translator in Warsaw caught up in negotiations with the Nazis and trying to smuggle his Polish lover Kasia out of the country, to Lois, the girl who is waiting for him at home, a young Mancunian factory worker who will come to take all the opportunities the War can offer to live a different kind of life.
“To Nancy, a female US war correspondent who can’t find peace unless her life is at risk, to the Rossler family in Berlin, worried for their soldier son and willing to do anything to protect their disabled daughter from the attentions of the ruling Nazi regime.”
The seven-part series is likely to be shown on BBC1 next year.
Main pic Sean Bean: David Fisher/BAFTA/REX/Shutterstock
