BBC AMERICA AND BBC ONE ANNOUNCE LEADS OF NEW DRAMA "THE LIVING AND THE DEAD"

The eerie mystery drama from Life on Mars creators will star Colin Morgan as Nathan Appleby

New York - August 7, 2015 - BBC AMERICA and BBC One announced today the cast of the new co-produced drama, The Living And The Dead. The original six-part series, created by Ashley Pharoah (Life On Mars, Ashes To Ashes, Moonfleet), will star Colin Morgan (Humans, The Fall, Merlin) as lead Nathan Appleby and Charlotte Spencer (Glue, Stonemouth, Line Of Duty), as Charlotte Appleby, Nathan's wife. Colin won a National Television Award for Most Popular Male Drama Performance in 2013 and Charlotte was BAFTA nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2015.

Set in 1894, a brilliant young couple inherit a farm and are determined to start a new life together. But their presence in an isolated corner of England starts to unleash strange, unsettling and dangerous supernatural phenomena that will start to threaten their marriage.

The Living And The Dead is a drama steeped in the eeriness of the rural world at the moment when the industrial revolution came crashing in to disrupt all the old certainties. Uncanny, intriguing and disturbing - at the series' heart is the love story of Nathan and Charlotte Appleby. Deeply in love with each other but put under extraordinary pressure, they will have to fight to save their marriage and their home.

Colin Morgan says: "The Living And The Dead is one of those scripts that you read and are instantly compelled and engaged by. It's intelligent, chilling and engrossing. It's going to be very special and I can't wait to start working on it with the wonderful creative team."

The executive producers are Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham for Monastic Productions, and Faith Penhale, Head of BBC Wales Drama Production, and Katie McAleese for BBC Wales Drama Production. It will be distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide.

BBC AMERICA delivers U.S. audiences high-quality, innovative and intelligent programming. Established in 1998, it has been the launch pad for talent embraced by American mainstream pop culture, including Ricky Gervais, Gordon Ramsay, Graham Norton, and successful programming formats including ground-breaking non-scripted television like Top Gear and top-rated science-fiction like Doctor Who. A joint venture between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and AMC Networks, BBC AMERICA has attracted both critical acclaim and major awards including four Emmy(R) Awards, five Golden Globes(R) and 12 Peabody Awards. The channel attracts one of cable's most affluent and educated audiences and is available on cable and satellite TV in nearly 80 million homes. It broadcasts in both standard and high-definition, with content available On Demand across all major digital platforms. Online, www.BBCAmerica.com is the place to go to dig deeper into pop culture with a British twist.