Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Josh Radnor Star in Ridley Scott’s ‘Mercy Street’

Josh Radnor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Star in Mercy Street
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Nurse Mary Phinney and Josh Radnor as Jedediah Foster in ‘Mercy Street’ (Courtesy of Antony Platt / PBS)

PBS’ upcoming Civil War drama has a new title, confirmed directors, and a huge ensemble cast led by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Josh Radnor. Mercy Street, a six-part series, will be directed by Roxann Dawson (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Jeremy Webb (Masters of Sex) and executive produced by Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Lisa Q. Wolfinger, and David Zabel.

Mercy Street, PBS’ first American drama in more than a decade, will air on Sunday nights in late 2016. Filming just began this month in and around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia.


“It’s an honor to be able to tell the exciting stories of real experiences and struggles of the war,” said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, PBS. “I know this talented and diverse cast and crew will be able to bring Mercy Street to life on screen. We will tell the story of what it was like in Alexandria, Virginia — the crossroads of the Civil War — by delving into the multifaceted lives of those in the hospital wards.”

“I’m delighted to be working with such a talented cast and crew on Mercy Street, a remarkable story that portrays perhaps the most challenging time in our nation’s history,” said executive producer Lisa Q. Wolfinger. “Our diverse and colorful cast of characters — Union doctors, female volunteers, contraband laborers and Southern loyalists — will bring to life the chaotic world of Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia, and the Mansion House Hospital.”

The Plot:

Mercy Street follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposing sides of the Civil War — New England abolitionist Mary Phinney and Confederate supporter Emma Green. The Green family’s luxury hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, has been transformed into Mansion House, a Union Army hospital tending to the war’s wounded. Inspired by memoirs and letters from real doctors and nurse volunteers at Mansion House Hospital, this new drama reveals the stories of those struggling to save lives while managing their own hardships.

The Mercy Street Cast:

– Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Nurse Mary Phinney, a feisty New Englander and widow who is a newcomer at Mansion House Hospital.

– Josh Radnor as Jedediah Foster, the civilian contract surgeon who grew up in a privileged Southern slave-owning household as the son of a wealthy Maryland landowner.

– Gary Cole as James Green, Sr., patriarch of the Green family, struggling to maintain his family business while living in an occupied city.

– Peter Gerety as Dr. Alfred Summers, chief surgeon at Mansion House, who has risen to the rank of major by virtue of his age, not skill.

– Norbert Leo Butz as Dr. Byron Hale, an old-school army surgeon who lives life by the book. While Hale has an eye for the nurses, he has an ongoing relationship with Nurse Anne Reading.

– McKinley Belcher III as Samuel Diggs, a black laborer harboring a secret knowledge and ability in medicine, which he learned as a boy servant.

– Shalita Grant as Aurelia Johnson, a beautiful, stoical ‘contraband’ working as a laundress at the hospital, and trying to bury her past.

– Newcomer Hannah James as Emma Green, an entitled Southern young woman who volunteers as a nurse at Mansion House Hospital, the facility established on the site of her family’s luxury hotel.

– Cherry Jones guest stars as Dorothea Dix, known as “Miss Dix,” the formidable superintendent of Union Army nurses.