C4 saga ‘Indian Summers’ announces cast
Julie Walters (Harry Potter, Mo), will lead the cast of Channel 4’s new 10-part epic drama, Indian Summers.
Also starring in the explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India is, Henry Lloyd-Hughes (The Inbetweeners, Harry Potter), Jemima West (The Borgias, The Mortal Instruments : City of Bones), Nikesh Patel (Bedlam, Honour), Roshan Seth (A Passage to India, Ghandi) and Lillete Dubey (Monsoon Wedding)
The series is an epic saga set in the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India in the summer of 1932. As the British Raj begins to falter, it exposes the implications and ramifications of the tangled web of passions, rivalries and clashes that define the lives of those brought together in this summer which will change everything.
Also joining the cast are Alexander Cobb (Mr Selfridge, Call the Midwife), Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty, Misfits), Fiona Glascott (Episodes), Amber Rose Revah (What Remains), Aysha Kala (Shameless), Olivia Grant (Legacy) and Edward Hogg (The Borgias).
Ralph Whelan (Lloyd-Hughes), 30, coolly ambitious, a coming man and tipped for promotion, is Private Secretary to the Viceroy of India. His sister, Alice (West), returns to Simla alone with her child and finds herself drawn to Aafrin (Patel), early 20s, Junior Clerk in the Viceroy’s office and son to Roshana (Dubey) and Darius (Seth), a gentle man and veteran of The Great War. Aafrin is brother to Sooni (Kala), early 20s, severe and beautiful, and his spoilt younger sister Shamshad.
At the heart of Simla’s society is Cynthia (Walters), 60s, widowed, doyenne of the Royal Club who is as at home in the tack room as she is the ballroom. A force to be reckoned with, her influence spreads throughout the community.
The cast of characters also includes Douglas (Parkinson), who runs a missionary school, his wife Sarah (Glascott) who yearns for the comforts of home, Ian McLeod (Cobb), the young and naïve Scottish tea plantation heir, and the mysterious Anglo Indian woman Leena (Revah).
The series is a co-production from New Pictures with MASTERPIECE on PBS, and created and written by Vera writer Paul Rutman. It will be directed by Anand Tucker (Red Riding) and produced by Dan McCulloch (Endeavour). Executive producers are Charlie Pattinson (Shameless), Elaine Pyke (Mad Dogs) and Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn), and Rebecca Eaton for MASTERPIECE on PBS. Indira Varma is co-executive producer.
Filming of Indian Summers will take place this summer with the series due to be broadcast on Channel 4 in 2015 beginning with a 90-minute episode. Subsequent episodes will be an hour long.
