EXCLUSIVE: BBC Two has found another two actresses for its upcoming 90 minute drama The Thirteenth Tale. I’ve learned that Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner and relative newcomer Antonia Clarke (Lightfields) have both been cast in the drama. According to my sources, Turner and Clarke have been cast as sisters Adeline March and Emmeline March, two characters who are a key part of the drama. Adeline is described as being hot tempered and prone to lash out at those who dare cross her; while Emmeline is described as being more placid than Adeline and eager to please those around her – especially her sister.

Based on the novel of the same name by Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale tells the story of the residents of Angelfield House and follows ageing novelist Vida Winter, who enlists young writer Margaret Lea to finally tell the story of her life – including her mysterious childhood spent in Angelfield House, which burned to the ground when she was a teenager. The project has been described to me as a “chilling ghost story which examines family tragedy.” The adaptation was written by Christopher Hampton, who previously adapted Doris Lessing’s novel Two Mothers and Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. Heyday Films is producing with David Heyman, Norma Heyman and Rosie Alison serving as producers. Inside Men helmer James Kent is attached to direct.

TVWise initially reported back in March that BBC Two Controller Janice Hadlow and the BBC’s Controller of Drama Ben Stephenson had commissioned a one-off adaptation of the novel and that it would be a key part of BBC Two’s Christmas line-up. The BBC has yet to formally announce or confirm any of this, however, TVWise also previously broke the news that Vanessa Redgrave (Political Animals), Robert Pugh (Game of Thrones) and Gordon Winter (Friday Night Dinner) have all been cast in The Thirteenth Tale, which is set to enter production later this month.

Interestingly, I’m told that Sophie Turner and Antonia Clarke are not the only two actresses playing Adeline and Emmeline in this drama. I hear that owing to the way the story is framed – namely that of one character recounting her life story to another – the vast majority of The Thirteenth Tale is told via flashback sequences and that the characters of Emmeline and Adeline, whom are key to the story, appear both at the age of ten and at the age of fifteen. Turner and Clarke are playing these characters at the age of fifteen and I’m still waiting to hear who has been cast as the younger Emmeline and Adeline.

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