The BBC has revealed the lead cast for drama series The Ministry of Time, produced by A24, as filming begins in the London area. The series stars Aoife Hinds (Dune: Prophecy, Normal People) as Sophy and Billy Howle (The Perfect Couple, Under the Banner of Heaven) as Commander Graham Gore.
The Ministry of Time is based on Kaliane Bradley's bestselling debut novel of the same name, adapted by Alice Birch (Normal People, The End We Start From, Dead Ringers), with Aneil Karia (Hamlet, The Gold, Surge) as lead director. The six-part series will be produced by A24 (Beef, Such Brave Girls, Dreaming Whilst Black) for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, with Amediateka, Bell Media's Crave, Binge Australia and ZDF serving as co-producers.
According to the synopsis, The Ministry of Time is "a newly established government department that gathers 'expatriates' from history in an experiment to test the viability of time travel". The story follows Sophy, who achieves a hard-won promotion in the civil service, only to discover that her role is to help a time traveller adapt to the modern world as part of a top-secret Ministry programme. Commander Graham Gore is a Victorian polar explorer and one of several 'expatriates' from history who now form part of the Ministry's extraordinary experiment.
Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time, said: "This is very exciting, and I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds. If I could travel back six years in time to tell my past self what was going to happen with that polar explorer I'd just started writing about, I think I would have done something very much in the style of a Victorian fainting fit". Lindsay Salt, head of BBC Drama, described The Ministry of Time as "a truly distinctive series that defies genre, with a beautiful central relationship, and we are delighted that Aoife and Billy are leading the cast".
The Ministry of Time was commissioned by Salt and is executive produced by A24, Birch, Aneil Karia and Jo McClellan for the BBC. Frances du Pille (The Sixth Commandment, What It Feels Like for a Girl) is the producer. A24 will distribute the series internationally.
