Matthew Rhys is following up a six-season run on The Americans with BBC Two’s Death And Nightingales, based on Eugene McCabe’s novel. Jamie Dornan (the Fifty Shades franchise) and Ann Skelly (Red Rock) are also committed to star in the three-episode hour-long drama which is scheduled to begin shooting this summer in Northern Ireland.
The series is adapted and directed by Allan Cubitt. Cubitt and Dornan previously worked together on the critically acclaimed series, The Fall.
James Mitchell, Tommy Bulfin are executive producing, and Jonathan Cavendish is on board as a producer. The project’s an Imaginarium and Soho Moon production for BBC Two.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Allan Cubitt’s work for many years so I’m thrilled to have been given the chance to work on Death And Nightingales alongside Jamie and Ann and return to the BBC,” said Matthew Rhys.
Jamie Dornan said, “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.”
“Playing such a strong character as Beth Winters is truly an actor’s dream, and a fantastically intense challenge to be given the opportunity to play,” stated Ann Skelly. “And to get to work with such brilliant actors like Matthew and Jamie, and a director like Allan Cubitt, is just surreal to me. I can’t wait to start!”
The Plot: “Based on Eugene McCabe’s modern Irish classic, Death And Nightingales is a riveting story of love, betrayal, deception and revenge, set in the beautiful haunting countryside of Fermanagh in 1885. 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.
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.”
