Stellar casting join Maggie Gyllenhaal in Hugo Blick’s The Honourable Woman.

With filming about to commence on Hugo Blick’s new seven-part BBC Two drama, The Honourable Woman, further casting has been announced to join American Academy Award nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal – who plays the titular role of Nessa Stein.

The fast-paced, labyrinthine thriller will have a cast of nearly a hundred people including a stellar international cast including: Stephen Rea (The Shadow Line, V For Vendetta) as Hugh Hayden-Hoyle – a top MI6 spy on the verge of retirement, digging deep into Nessa Stein’s family. His bitter ex-wife Anjelica is played by Lindsay Duncan (The Hollow Crown, White Heat).

The White Queen actress Janet McTeer OBE (Damages, Albert Nobbs) plays the Head of MI6 Julia Walsh – who has a personal hold over Hayden-Hoyle (Rea).

Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch, Garrow’s Law) will play Nessa Stein’s (Gyllenhaal) brother Ephra Stein – seemingly over-shadowed by his sister within the Stein family business. He is joined by BAFTA-award nominee Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Sherlock) as his highly strung pregnant wife Rachel Stein. Multi-award-winning Belgian actress Lubna Azbal (Occupation, Paradise Now) plays Atika Halibi, nanny to Ephra and Rachel Stein’s two young daughters and close friend to Nessa.

Tobias Menzies (Game Of Thrones, The Shadow Line) has previously worked with Maggie Gyllenhaal on the film Hysteria, and this time plays opposite her as Nessa’s trusted personal body guard Nathaniel Bloom. Genevieve O’Reilly (Spooks, Episodes) plays Nessa’s loyal personal assistant Frances.

Israeli actor Igal Naor (300: Rise Of An Empire, Green Zone) received international acclaim for his portrayal of Saddam Hussein in House Of Saddam and plays Shlomo Zahary, a close long-time ally of the Stein family. British theatre and television actress Eve Best (Nurse Jackie, The Shadow Line) is Monica Chatwin, a key MI6 agent from the Washington Bureau – spoiling for a fight with her UK counterparts.

Other cast includes: Martin Hutson, Nicholas Woodeson, Raad Rawi, Richard Katz, Philip Arditti, John Mackay, Rupert Frazer, Uriel Emil, Paul Herzberg, George Georgiou, Julia Montgomery-Brown, Martin Mcdougall, Aiden Stephenson, Tom Bateman, Amira Ghazalla, Hugh Ross and Stephen Boxer.

The series is a co-production made by Drama Republic, Hugo Blick’s Eight Rooks Productions and Sundance Channel.

The Honourable Woman begins filming in London this week for 18 weeks and is set to broadcast on BBC Two and the Sundance Channel in 2014.