L-R: Top – Hong Chau (Image: Chris Pizzello), Adeel Akhtar (Image: Sarah Cresswell), Tamara Lawrance (Image: Pip), Emily Fairn (Image: Phil Sharp), Josh Finan (Image: Ruth Crafer). Bottom – Aisling Loftus (Image: Bertie Watson), Tawfeek Barhom (Image: Phil Sharp), Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (Image: Roch Armando), Ciarán Hinds (Image: Liam Murphy) and Hélène Patarot.
The BBC has announced a sizeable batch of new cast members joining ‘The Ministry of Time‘, its upcoming six-part time-travel drama from A24, with Hong Chau (The Whale, Wuthering Heights), Adeel Akhtar (Down Cemetery Road, Sherwood), Tamara Lawrance (Get Millie Black, Mr Loverman) and Ciarán Hinds (Belfast, Munich) among those boarding the series.
They join previously announced leads Aoife Hinds (Normal People, Dune: Prophecy) as civil servant Sophy and Billy Howle (The Perfect Couple, Under the Banner of Heaven) as Victorian polar explorer Commander Graham Gore. So, with filming already underway, the Ministry’s recruitment department has clearly been busy.
Based on Kaliane Bradley’s bestselling debut novel, ‘The Ministry of Time’ centres on a newly established government department which gathers “expats” from across history as part of an experiment to test whether time travel is actually viable. Sophy finally earns a hard-fought promotion in the civil service, only to discover her new role as a “bridge” involves helping one of those historical arrivals adjust to modern life.
That arrival is Graham, one of several historical “expats” brought into the Ministry’s experiment. Their professional relationship gradually develops into an intense forbidden romance, while the pair become increasingly caught up in the more sinister truth behind the department’s real intentions.
Hong Chau (The Whale, Wuthering Heights) plays Adela, the Vice-Secretary of Expatriation, while Adeel Akhtar (Down Cemetery Road, Sherwood) stars as Quentin Ackerly, Sophy’s Ministry “handler”. Tamara Lawrance (Get Millie Black, Mr Loverman) plays Simellia, another “bridge” working alongside Sophy.
Graham will also have some fellow historical arrivals to keep him company. Emily Fairn (The Responder, House of Guinness) plays Margaret Kemble, Josh Finan (Say Nothing, Waiting For The Out) is Captain Arthur Reginald-Smyth, and Aisling Loftus (Sherwood, War & Peace) stars as Anne Spencer.
Elsewhere, Tawfeek Barhom (Cairo Conspiracy, The Way of the Wind) and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (120 Beats Per Minute, Persian Lessons) play the mysterious Brigadier and Salese, while Sophy’s parents Peter and Channary are played by Ciarán Hinds (Belfast, Munich) and Hélène Patarot (Paris, Je T’aime, Whitetail).
The adaptation comes from Alice Birch (Normal People, The End We Start From, Dead Ringers), with Aneil Karia (Top Boy, The Gold, Surge) serving as lead director. A24 produces the six-part series for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with Frances du Pille (The Sixth Commandment, What It Feels Like for a Girl) as producer.
‘The Ministry of Time‘ is currently filming in and around London. It will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with a premiere date still to be announced.
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