The first official promotional photos for BBC One’s new adaptation of War and Peace have been revealed.

Adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 literary masterpiece by Mr Selfridge writer Andrew Davies, the six one-hour episodes will “bring the classic to life for a modern audience on a truly epic scale”.

The four pictures show Lily James (Downton Abbey) as Natasha Rostova, James Norton (Grantchester) as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Paul Dano (12 Years A Slave) as Pierre Bezukhov.

Writer Andrew Davies previously commented: “Not just a great novel it’s a wonderful read and it’ll make a wonderful serial. A thrilling, funny and heartbreaking story of love, war and family life. The characters are so natural and human and easy to identify with and Natasha Rostova just beats Lizzy Bennet as the most lovable heroine in literature.”

The cast also includes Stephen Rea (An Honourable Woman) as Prince Vassily Kuragin, Ade Edmondson (Blood) and Greta Scacchi (Brideshead Revisited) as Count and Countess Rostov, Jack Lowden (The Passing Bells) as Nikolai Rostov, Tom Burke (The Musketeers) as Dolokhov, Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter) as Prince Bolkonsky, Gillian Anderson (The Fall) as Anna Pavlovna, Rebecca Front (The Thick Of It) as Anna Mikhailovna, Kenneth Cranham (In The Flesh) as Uncle Mikhail and Aisling Loftus (Mr Selfridge) as Sonya.

Directed by Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders), War and Peace began filming in January in Russia, Lithuania and Latvia.

War and Peace will air on BBC One this winter.

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