Miranda Richardson and Anna Chancellor will lead the cast of Steve Pemberton’s upcoming adaptation of EF Benson’s comic drama Mapp and Lucia.

Richardson (Parade’s End, Blackadder) and Chancellor (The Hour, Spooks) will play notorious small-town social rivals Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Mrs Emmeline ‘Lucia’ Lucas in BBC One’s new three-part series, which is set in the summer of 1930.

Miranda Richardson commented: “I am so looking forward to a summer of hard work and I hope, great fun, working with the ensemble on Steve’s masterly adaptation of EF Benson’s delicious confection. I cannot wait to get my teeth into Mapp… and of course, Lucia!”

Anna Chancellor added: “I am thrilled to be playing the glorious Lucia. I hope I can do justice to EF Benson’s wonderful creations.”

Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) will co-star as Raj Army veteran Major Benjy alongside the writer Steve Pemberton (Inside No 9) as Lucia’s devoted acolyte and dapper chief courtier, Georgie Pillson.

Mark Gatiss said: “EF Benson’s tales of life in Tilling are some of the most sly, funny and waspishly brilliant stories in the language. It’s an absolute treat to be joining my old friend Steve and such a glorious cast to bring them to life. Quai hai!”

Steve Pemberton added: “It’s a dream come true to be playing the delightful Georgie Pillson in Rye this summer, and I’m doubly excited to be joined by Miranda Richardson and Anna Chancellor. Both have proved themselves to be equally brilliant comic and dramatic actresses, and the thought of them going into battle as Mapp and Lucia is mouthwatering. The Channel 4 adaptation from the 1980s is what brought me to the books and I very much hope this new version will have a similar effect, turning a whole new readership on to EF Benson’s bitingly funny novels.”

The cast also includes Felicity Montagu (Bridget Jones’s Diary) as Godiva ‘Diva’ Plaistow, Gemma Whelan (Game Of Thrones) as Quaint Irene Coles the Disgrace of Tilling (and her sex), Paul Ritter (The Game) as Reverend Kenneth Bartlett (Padre), Katy Brand (Mongrels) as Hermione Pillson, Poppy Miller (The Commander) as Evie Bartlett, Nick Woodeson (Skyfall) as Algernon Wyse, Pippa Haywood (The Brittas Empire) as his wife Susan Wyse and Frances Barber (Silk) as the vivacious and good-humoured Amelia, Contessa di Faraglione.

Mapp and Lucia begins filming this summer in Rye, Sussex.

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