Myanna Buring (Ripper Street), Russell Tovey (Being Human) and Julian Rhind-Tutt (The Hour) will lead the cast of Jimmy McGovern’s epic new BBC Two drama, Banished.

From the makers of Top Of The Lake, the seven-part series opens at dawn in New South Wales, Australia in 1788 and begins filming north of Sydney next month.

Banished is loosely inspired by events in the 18th century when Britain established a penal colony on the other side of the world, charting the lives, loves, relationships and battle for survival of a group of convicts, the soldiers who guard them and the men who govern them in the early days of this settlement.

Accused writer Jimmy McGovern commented: “How the first convicts survived is the best story I’ve come across in over 30 years as a dramatist. When you’ve got something like that, you don’t worry about the narrative; you just concentrate on the characters. That is what we did. Consequently, I don’t think I’ve ever written anything so character-driven.”

The cast also includes David Wenham (Top Of The Lake), Joseph Millson (Holby City), Ewen Bremner (Accused), Genevieve O’Reilly (The Honourable Woman), Orla Brady (Strike Back) and Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise).

Banished will air on BBC Two in 2015.

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