Helen Mirren may be returning to television for the first time in ten years. According to the Sun, the esteemed Oscar-winning actress is in talks to star in an adaptation of Charles Cumming’s series of “Thomas Kell” spy novels.
If Mirren accepts the role, she will be playing Amelia Levene, the recently promoted head of MI6 who goes missing a few weeks before she’s supposed to take over. Colin Firth, who is producing the show, will be starring alongside her as disgraced spy Thomas Kell, the man who is enlisted to help track Levene down. The author of the novels, Charles Cumming, is currently writing the pilot for what is to be a six-episode miniseries. ITV is hoping to purchase the broadcasting rights.
Mirren’s last television appearance was as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in ITV’s critically acclaimed police procedural “Prime Suspect”, which aired from 1991 to 2006.
According to the Sun’s source, Mirren “is interested in playing the role as it’s a key character that doesn’t sit around in an office.” After the success of “The Night Manager”, a miniseries adaptation of one of John le Carré’s novels starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, “TV bosses have been desperate to get their hands on the next big British spy drama”, and “[g]etting such a high profile and well-loved actress like Helen on board is a real coup”.
While nothing is official yet, if the series is picked up it will most likely air sometime in 2017.