Channel 4 announce casting for Jerusalem drama

Filming has begun on new Bash Doran drama Jerusalem the broadcaster has today announced.

Jerusalem a period based thriller set in the aftermath of the Second World War  centres around a seismic moment in history, when Britain was struggling to define itself in a new world order.

The castings as revealed today by Channel 4 include Emma Appleton, Michael Stuhlbarg, Luke Treadaway (pictured above in Sky’s hit Fortitude), Keeley Hawes, Stephen Campbell Moore and Brandon P Bell.

The story revolves around Feef Symonds (Appleton), a bold and ambitious 20-something woman who joins the Civil Service in 1945, just as Attlee’s Labour party sweeps to victory, defeating Churchill in an electoral bolt from the blue. Her ambition to make something of her life is unrecognised by her family but encouraged by her American lover, Peter, played by Matt Lauria (Kingdom, Friday Night Lights) and does not go unnoticed by fellow American and zealot Rowe (Michael Stuhlbarg).

Feef agrees to spy on her own government for the Americans, who are determined to make sure England’s burgeoning Socialist ambitions don’t play into Soviet hands. Struggling to work out what she stands for, and what she’s capable of, Feef must learn to think for herself and play by her own rules at a time when knowledge becomes power and nothing and no-one is what they seem.

Things are further complicated when Feef meets Hugh (Luke Treadaway) a Socialist and idealist, and newly elected Labour MP. Will he cause her to question her loyalty to the Americans? And what role does Jarvis (Stephen Campbell Moore) play?

Priscilla (Keeley Hawes) is Feef’s exacting boss at the civil service. She proves a difficult person for Feef to win over and becomes an unlikely role model of what a woman can achieve in a man’s world.

“Today, as the world finds itself at the mercy of ever shifting global alliances, nuclear anxiety and strained political relations, Jerusalem explores a time wracked by fear and mistrust, but shaped by hope.” – Channel 4