Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin cast in Apple Tree Yard

BBC One’s drama adaptation of Louise Doughty’s best-selling psychological thriller, Apple Tree Yard, is to lead star Emily Watson and Ben Chapman.

“I am both relishing and daunted by the prospect of taking on this role; it’s grown up, steamy and of queasy moral complexity.” – Emily Watson

Watson will feature as Yvonne Carmichael and Chaplin as Mark Costley. Mark Bonnar, Adeel Akhtar, Lydia Leonard, Frances Tomelty and Rhashan Stone have also signed up to the series.

Adapted for television by writer Amanda Coe Apple Tree Yard is a provocative, audacious thriller that puts women’s lives at the heart of a gripping, insightful story about the values we live by and the choices we make. Married with two grown-up children, Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson) lives a contented, conventional suburban life. But her world spirals into chaos, when a chance encounter leads to an impulsive and passionate affair with a charismatic stranger (Ben Chaplin).

Despite all her careful plans to keep her home life and career safe and separate from her affair, fantasy and reality soon begin to overlap and everything she values is put at risk, as a life-changing act of violence leads to a Crown Court trial.

Yvonne’s downward trajectory is searingly realised; hers is a life ripped apart as the consequence of one, single, spur-of-the-moment decision. A decision any one of us might make.

“Apple Tree Yard is that rare thing, a perfectly executed page-turner that’s also a gripping exploration of the difficult moral choices we face in adult relationships.” – Amanda Coe, writer

The four part series is produced by production company Kudos for BBC One and the hour long episodes will start filming later this month.