The cast has been announced for BBC Two’s upcoming adaptation of fantasy writer China Miéville’s The City & The City.

Miéville’s genre-busting novel was published in 2009. The author is a three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award.

From the makers of Poldark and Victoria, the mind-bending new four-part thriller is written by Tony Grisoni (The Young Pope, Southcliffe, The Red Riding Trilogy) and directed Tom Shankland (House of Cards, The Missing).

David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) will lead the cast as Inspector Tyador Borlú, alongside Mandeep Dhillon (Some Girls) as Constable Corwi of the Besźel Policzai, Maria Schrader (Deutschland 83) as Senior Detective Dhatt of the Ul Qoma Militsya, Ron Cook (Mr Selfridge) as Borlú’s superior Commissar Gadlem, Danny Webb (Humans) as hard-right nationalist politician Major Syedr, and Christian Camargo (Penny Dreadful) as Doctor Bowden, an American academic.

Morrissey commented: “I am delighted to be working with the brilliant Tony Grisoni again on this exciting project. I am a huge fan of the original book by China Miéville.”

The official synopsis reads: “The body of a foreign student is discovered in the streets of the down at heel city of Besźel. Cases like this are run of the mill for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad – until his investigations uncover evidence that the dead girl had come from another city called Ul Qoma. But the relationship between the two cities defies comprehension and will challenge everything Borlú holds dear.”

China Miéville said:  “It’s been fascinating and moving to witness the translation from fiction to script, and to work with Tony (Grisoni) and Tom (Shankland) and everyone on this production. What they’re making feels both familiar, sending me right back to the book, and yet very much their own, something I’m eager to discover. I’m extremely impatient for it!”

Executive producer Preethi Mavahalli added: “Set in divided cities where communities live cheek by jowl, choosing what they see, and ‘unsee’, this is a story that explores the way we live together today. The City & The City is a noir thriller with a fantastical twist which will quite literally break boundaries with its unique take on the murder mystery.”

The City & The City will be filmed on location in Manchester and Liverpool.

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