Sarah Lancashire joins cast of BBC drama starring Richard Gere

Sarah Lancashire has joined Hollywood actor Richard Gere on the cast of BBC drama MotherFatherSon, the broadcaster has revealed.

Two-time Bafta-winner Lancashire heads up a list of new names announced for the series in which Gere will play American media mogul Max, whose outlets include a London newspaper.

Happy Valley star Lancashire will play Angela Howard, a former businesswoman turned politician and leader of the opposition.

Black Panther and Star Wars actor Danny Sapani will star opposite Lancashire as the UK’s first Muslim prime minister.

Joseph Mawle, who played Benjen Stark in Game Of Thrones, will portray a “damaged figure” who becomes involved with Gere’s estranged wife in the show, Kathryn (Helen McCrory).

Call The Midwife star Sinead Cusack and Paul Ready from BBC sitcom Motherland have also been announced as journalists working at Max’s newspaper.

Pippa Bennett-Warner, who stars alongside Sapani in the period drama Harlots, will play Max’s trusted adviser Lauren.

The programme has been created and written by Child 44 novelist Tom Rob Smith.

Smith also wrote the screenplay for biopic drama series The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which starred Darren Criss and Penelope Cruz.

Smith welcomed the addition of the show’s new talent, saying: “This is one of the most exciting casts ever assembled for television.”

MotherFatherSon, which will air on BBC Two, is the first television work for Pretty Woman star Gere since US TV film And The Band Played On in 1993.

When the show was announced in May, the Golden Globe-winner said: “It’s been almost 30 years since I worked in television.

“I’m so pleased to be working now with the BBC on this extraordinary eight-hour project with such talented people and which resonates so much to the time we live in.”

Filming for MotherFatherSon will begin shortly in London and on location in Spain.

The series will run for eight hour-long episodes.