’50 Shades’ star joins BBC’s new Irish period drama series ‘Death and Nightingales’

The cast has been announced for the BBC’s upcoming adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s Death and Nightingales.

Described as “a riveting story of love, betrayal, deception and revenge,” McCabe’s modern classic is set in 1885 in the beautiful haunting countryside of Fermanagh, Ireland, “a place where neighbours observe each other and inform, a world of spies, confessions and double dealing; where a pervading sense of beauty is shot through with menace and impending doom.”

Allan Cubitt is adapting the book as a new three-part mini-series for BBC Two.

Jamie Dornan (The Fall) will lead the cast of Death and Nightingales, alongside Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Ann Skelly (Red Rock).

The 50 Shades of Grey star commented: “I’m thrilled to be reunited with Allan and his brilliant scripts to play such an intriguing character like Liam Ward and to return to Northern Ireland and BBC Two.”

Cubitt and Dornan previously worked together on BBC Two’s The Fall. Co-starring Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), the acclaimed British-Irish psychological thriller series The Fall ran for three seasons on BBC Two between 2013 and 2016.

The official synopsis reads: “Set over a desperately tense 24- hour period, it’s Beth Winters’ (Ann Skelly) 25th birthday – the day she has decided to join the charming Liam Ward (Jamie Dornan) and escape from her limited life and difficult and complex relationship with her Protestant landowner stepfather Billy (Matthew Rhys).

“As decades of pain and betrayal finally build to a devastating climax, Death And Nightingales is a powerful and gripping drama that follows a woman struggling to control her own destiny and will illuminate tensions that tear both families and nations apart.”

Death and Nightingales begins filming this summer in Northern Ireland and is expected to air on BBC Two in the UK in 2019.