First look at ’50 Shades’ star Jamie Dornan in BBC’s new Irish period drama ‘Death and Nightingales’

The BBC has released the first photos from its upcoming adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s Death and Nightingales.

Filming is underway in Northern Ireland, with The Fall creator Allan Cubitt adapting the book as a new three-part mini-series for BBC Two.

Jamie Dornan (The Fall) leads the cast, alongside Matthew Rhys (The Americans) and Ann Skelly (Red Rock).

McCabe’s modern classic is set in 1885 in the beautiful haunting countryside of Fermanagh, Ireland.

The official synopsis for Death and Nightingales 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.”

Director and writer Allan Cubitt previously commented: “Death and Nightingales is a dark and powerful love story set across class and religious divides in 19th-century County Fermanagh.”

Death and Nightingales is expected to air on BBC Two in the UK in 2019.