There’s no sign yet of the touted Mad About You reboot, but Helen Hunt is a making a return to the small screen nevertheless. She’s set to take the lead role in World on Fire — a new landmark drama by the BBC.
Deadline reports the Oscar-winning As Good As It Gets star will head an impressive cast that includes Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Jonah Hauer-King (Laurie in the 2017 PBS adaptation of Little Women), and Julia Brown (The Last Kingdom).
Written by The A Word‘s Peter Bowker, the seven-part series will be a multi-stranded drama telling the story of the first year of the Second World War. It will explore the impact the conflict had on ordinary people from Britain, Poland, France, Germany and the United States.
Hunt’s role hasn’t been confirmed, but Peter Bowker’s description suggests she’ll play U.S. war correspondent, Nancy:
“World On Fire tells the hidden human stories within the big historical events we think we know,” he explained in a press release. “From Harry, a young English translator in Warsaw caught up in negotiations with the Nazis and trying to smuggle his Polish lover Kasia out of the country, to Lois, the girl who is waiting for him at home, a young Mancunian factory worker who will come to take all the opportunities the war can offer to live a different kind of life.
“To Nancy, a female US war correspondent who can’t find peace unless her life is at risk, to the Rossler family in Berlin, worried for their soldier son and willing to do anything to protect their disabled daughter from the attentions of the ruling Nazi regime.
“These are the stories of the ordinary people who shaped our world. Stories of loyalty and brutality, courage and fear, hopes, stories of love and loss, hopes and dreams forged in extraordinary times.”
Filming begins this month in Prague, with other locations set to include Manchester, London, Paris and Berlin. It’ll probably see the light of day in 2019 — 80 years after the start of the war, with subsequent seasons set to cover later years of the conflict.
Are you excited to see Helen Hunt back on the small screen?