The BBC and MGM+ have announced that multi-award-winning actor Hugh Laurie (The Night Manager, House) and Joe Alwyn (The Brutalist, The Favourite) are to join the cast of The Ink Factory's forthcoming thriller, Legacy of Spies. Hugh Laurie will be taking on the role of Control, fiendish and commanding head of The Circus, and Joe Alwyn will play Circus veteran and roguish scalphunter Jim Prideaux.
Further cast announcements include:
Anjana Vasan (We Are Lady Parts, Black Mirror: Demon 79) as Connie Sachs
Charlotte Ritchie (You, Ghosts) as Ann Smiley
Lee Ross (Andor, White Gold) as Inspector Oliver Mendel
James McArdle (Mare of Easttown, Playing Nice) as Percy Alleline
John Dagleish (Sexy Beast, 3 Body Problem) as Roy Bland
Goran Bogdan (The Last Panthers, Father) as Toby Esterhase
Adam Hugill (Sherwood, Dear England) as Fawn
The show will mark George Smiley 's long-anticipated return to the screen with Matthew Macfadyen in the iconic role. Also starring in the series are Charlie Hunnam as the world-weary agent-runner and field operative Alec Leamas, Daniel Brühl as Josef Fiedler, Devrim Lingnau Islamoglu as Doris Quinz, Agnes O'Casey as Liz Gold, Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt, Dan Stevens as Bill Haydon Jake Dunn as Peter Guillam, Safia Oakley-Green as Molly Gibson, Ariyon Bakare as Cy Aflon, Patrick Güldenberg as Dr Karl Riemeck, Volker Bruch as Emmanuel Rapp and Saskia Rosendahl as Lotte Gamp.
Claudia Llosa (The Vampire Lestat, The Milk of Sorrow) - winner of the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear award and Oscar nominee - joins lead director and executive producer Michael Lennox as Second Director and Co-Executive Producer on the series.
The eight-part series has been adapted by Stephen Cornwell and Clarissa Ingram from John le Carré's 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and draws material from his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies. Filming is already underway and the show will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK and on MGM+ in the US.