Actress Laura Fraser will take on the role Florence Nightingale in the BBC's latest costume drama. Laura, who starred alongside Max Beesley in the ITV1 drama Talk To Me, will star as the heroic British nurse in the TV adaptation, which is based on extracts from Florence's own letters. Laura said: "I saw playing the role of Florence as an opportunity to find out more about who she really was and why she became a national heroine. "The first biography I read contained many direct Florence quotes and I was intrigued as I found her to be very funny, ironic, inspired and charismatic and like any human being, full of flaws. "Also my mum and all my aunties were nurses at various points in their lives and it's funny to think that the reforms Florence made would have impacted their training even all these years later." The drama tells the story of Florence's struggle when she returned to Britain from the Crimean war from the military hospital in Scutari, in 1857. She campaigned to the authorities, urging them to investigate the ineptitude of the military commanders, through a Royal Commission. She later suffered a mental breakdown. Written and directed by Norman Stone, Florence Nightingale will air on BBC1 at Easter.
