BBC Drama ‘Ministry Of Time’ Adds Adeel Akhtar, Ciaran Hinds & Eight More To Cast

BAFTA winner Adeel Akhtar (Sherwood) and Academy Award nominee Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) have joined the cast of A24‘s BBC drama series Ministry of Time.

Also announced this morning are Hong Chau (The Whale), Tamara Lawrance (Get Millie Black), Emily Fairn (The Responder), Josh Finan (Say Nothing), Aisling Loftus (Sherwood), Tawfeek Barhom (Cairo Conspiracy) and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (120 Beats Per Minute) and Hélène Patarot (Paris, Je T’aime).

They join Aoife Hinds and Billy Howle in the series, which is based on Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel of the same name. Alice Birch (Normal People) is adapting the show, with Aneil Karia (Top Boy) is lead director on the six-part series, which is produced by Beef and Dreaming Whilst Black maker A24 for BBC iPlayer and BBC One.

The show follows the professional friendship between Sophy (Hinds) and Graham (Howle), which “develops into an intense forbidden romance that reveals the transporting power of love across centuries, just as the sinister nature of the Ministry’s true intentions increasingly puts them in danger.”

Akhtar will play Quentin Ackerly, Sophy’s ‘handler’ at The Ministry, and while Aoife Hinds’ her real-life dad Ciarán will be Sophy’s father, Peter, with her mother, Patarot playing her on-screen mom Channary.

Hong will play Adela, the Vice-Secretary of Expatriation; Lawrance is Simellia, a ‘bridge’ alongside Sophy; Fairn will one of Commander Gore’s fellow ‘expats’, Margaret Kemble; Finan plays Captain Arthur Reginald-Smyth and Aisling Loftus is Anne Spencer. Barhom and Pérez Biscayart also star as the elusive Brigadier and Salese.

Filming on the six-part show is currently taking place in and around London, UK. A24 is executive producing alongside Birch, Bradley, Karia and Jo McClellan for the BBC. Frances du Pille is the producer and A24 has international distribution rights.