Impressive cast join BBC Two spy thriller, The Game.

An impressive all-star cast has been announced for Toby Whithouse‘s new six-part BBC Two spy thriller, The Game.

The drama stars Tom Hughes (Dancing On The Edge, Cemetery Junction), Brian Cox (Troy, The Bourne Supremacy), Paul Ritter (Quantum Of Solace, The Libertine), Shaun Dooley (The White Queen, Misfits), Chloe Pirrie (Black Mirror, Shell), Victoria Hamilton (Lark Rise To Candleford, What Remains), Jonathan Aris (Sherlock, Bright Star) and Judy Parfitt (Call The Midwife, Little Dorrit).

When a defecting KGB officer reveals the existence of a devastating Soviet plot, codenamed Operation Glass, the charismatic but paranoid head of MI5, known simply as Daddy (Cox), assembles a secret committee to investigate.

Maybe they’re the best, maybe they’re just the ones he trusts. They are Bobby Waterhouse (Ritter), the louche and ambitious head of counter-espionage; Sarah Montag (Hamilton), his dry-witted and fiercely clever deputy; her husband Alan (Aris), the ‘nosey-parker’, their cheerful and guileless expert in bugging and interception; Jim Fenchurch (Dooley), a stoic and sceptical Special Branch detective; Wendy Straw (Pirrie), the naïve and impressionable secretary. The final operative is Joe Lambe (Hughes), the troubled but genius interrogator, able to read every tic and turn of human nature, but hiding dark secrets of his own.

The exact nature of the threat is unclear. All they know is that the Soviets are reactivating sleeper agents across the UK and giving them all a task. Every episode our team receive a new name on the list. Each name is a new traitor to investigate, a mission into the unknown and a step closer to understanding Operation Glass.

Tom Hughes, playing Joe, commented on the role: “Joe is the type of character that you come across very rarely – on the surface one person, but inside someone entirely different. He’s running away from himself. It is those parts that always attract me, the ones that don’t just tick a box, they challenge. I couldn’t be more delighted to have signed up for this project.”

Brian Cox, playing Daddy, added “I am delighted to be part of the new BBC One drama The Game. The rich character-driven storylines were a real draw, and really capture the intense feeling of the cold war period.”

Executive producer and creator, Toby Whithouse, said: “These are some of the finest actors working in television today and it’s an honour to have them on our show. Our ambition was to create a thrilling mystery, with exciting and complex characters.”

The series is produced by Radford Neville for BBC Cymru Wales and executive produced by Faith Penhale, Hilary Salmon and Toby Whithouse.

The Game has begun filming in Birmingham, London and Wales this month (August).

*Updated to reflect the BBC’s decision change to show the series on BBC2 instead of BBC1*