Casting News: Imelda Staunton and Russell Tovey to Star in Family Drama 'Flesh and Blood'
British network ITV has just announced what could become your new favorite family drama. Imelda Staunton, Russell Tovey, and BAFTA winner Francesca Annis (Cranford, Dune) are to star in the "darkly witty" four-part miniseries Flesh and Blood.
Annis will play Vivien, a recently widowed 70-year-old woman who shocks her three grown-up children when she announces she's in love with retired GP Mark (War and Peace's Stephen Rea).
Tovey, Claudie Blakley (Grantchester), and Lydia Leonard (Gentleman Jack) will play the three siblings, and Staunton's role sounds especially intriguing. She'll appear as Vivien's longtime neighbor Mary, who's described as "unhealthily attached to Vivien and her family’s unfolding drama."
According to ITV's plot synopsis: "As she nears her 70th birthday, the siblings’ suspicions are heightened when retired GP Mark sweeps their mother off her feet, shifting her priorities away from her children. The happiness of her 45-year marriage to their father, Terry, is called into question, which sends a seismic shock through the lives of the siblings. Years of secrets, lies, rivalries and betrayals come to the surface and threaten to blow apart everything they’ve held dear."
Are you kind of hooked already?! Flesh and Blood is written and exec produced by Sarah Williams, whose previous credits include Small Island, Poppy Shakespeare, and Becoming Jane. Filming is taking place in London and the coastal county of Sussex, and the series is being distributed outside of the U.K. by ITV Studios, who also distributed Victoria and Bodyguard, so fingers crossed we hear details about a U.S. broadcaster soon.
In the meantime, you can catch Tovey in Russell T Davies's new drama series Years and Years, premiering June 24 on HBO, and Staunton in September's Downton Abbey movie.
Are you excited to see Imelda Staunton and Russell Tovey in Flesh and Blood?