Former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones has teamed up with ex-EastEnders writer Sarah Phelps for a new drama set in a field hospital in the First World War.
Suranne will play a nurse in the show, The Ark, alongside Oona Chaplin, Hermione Norris and Kerry Fox.
Sarah, who has written the six-part series, said: "I am bouncing off the walls with excitement at having such an extraordinary talented cast, bouncing off the walls."
Suranne said: "This is my first period drama and I am so excited at the prospect of filming a First World War series set on a frontline hospital. It's an important period in history not just because of the war but because it was a transitional period for women, liberated in some respect, but still shackled by the conventions and hierarchies of the past.
"Sarah Phelps really gets to the beating heart of a story and gives very strong images and weight to her characters. For my role as Joan she has created a nurse with a very independent and modern outlook who is much more interested in her patients than protocol. I am really looking forward to getting started and it will be great to work once again with director David Evans."
Filming on the BBC One drama starts this month.
