Here’s when the BBC’s ghostly new period drama ‘The Woman in White’ starts

The BBC’s new adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White will begin airing later this month in the UK.

First published in 1859, the story was viewed by many as the first psychological thriller novel.

The first episode of the five-part mini-series airs at 9pm on Sunday 22 April on BBC One.

Filmed around Belfast, Northern Ireland last spring, The Woman in White stars Ben Hardy (X-Men, EastEnders) as Walter Hartright and Jessie Buckley (War and Peace, Taboo) as Marian Halcombe, alongside Olivia Vinall (Apple Tree Yard) as Laura Fairlie, Charles Dance (And Then There Were None) as Mr Fairlie and Dougray Scott (The Replacement) as Sir Percival Glyde.

The synopsis for Episode 1 reads: “Walter Hartright (Ben Hardy), a young drawing master, encounters a ghostly woman dressed all in white on Hampstead Heath. He offers her assistance, but is later shocked to discover she has escaped from a lunatic asylum.

“The next day, Walter leaves London to take up a teaching post in the village of Limmeridge in Cumbria, working for Mr Frederick Fairlie (Charles Dance). There, he learns of a connection between his charming pupils, Laura Fairlie (Olivia Vinall) and Marian Halcombe (Jessie Buckley), and the mysterious woman in white: she’s known to the household as Anne Catherick, a mentally handicapped child who grew up in the village.

“Over the next few months, Walter and Laura Fairlie fall deeply in love, however she is already promised in marriage to a baronet – Sir Percival Glyde (Dougray Scott). When Laura receives a vicious letter attacking Sir Percival, Walter thinks Anne, who has recently returned to the village, might be responsible. He confronts her, only to uncover a chilling truth about Laura’s betrothed – that it was he who put Anne in the asylum.”