Summer Strallen is to star in new BBC period drama Land Girls. The former Hollyoaks star - who recently starred as Maria in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Sound Of Music - will play Nancy, a cosseted rich girl conscripted into the Women's Land Army (WLA) against her will. The five-part BBC One series created by Roland Moore as part of a season of programmes marking the 70th anniversary of World War Two, will follow the lives and loves of three other Land Girls and will also star Nathaniel Parker, of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, as lord of the manor and First World War hero. Hope Springs' Christine Bottomley will play Annie, who as the eldest in her family, becomes a mother figure to the other Land Girls, but is privately struggling to cope with her own problems. Jo Woodcock will play Bea, Annie's little sister, who has lied about her age to join the WLA and Becci Gemmell plays Joyce, a very patriotic character, worried about her husband who is posted with the RAF. Holby City's Sophie Ward plays Lady Ellen Hoxley who organises the girls. Liam Keelan, Controller of BBC Daytime, said: "Land Girls is a warm and vibrant drama celebrating the unsung heroes from the Second World War, and we're delighted to have secured this talented cast to realise the story."
