By Lacy Baugher for Drama on November 21st, 2012

Watch the Trailer for Restless, Starring Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery

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Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery will be stepping off the Crawley estate and into the world of international espionage this December in the new mini-series Restless, which is set to screen on the Sundance Channel here in the States in just a couple weeks.

Dockery plays Ruth, a young woman who discovers that her mother Ruth was once a spy for the British Secret Service in World War II and has been living a double life ever since.  The two-part series also stars some other notable British talent, including Charlotte Rampling, Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell and Michael Gambon. It’s based on a novel by William Boyd who, incidentally, will be penning the next James Bond novel.

The trailer looks quite interesting – and the material actually seems rich enough to support the level of talent involved.

It’s so exciting to see Lady Mary out of Edwardian dress that this can almost be forgiven for being yet another spy show (what with Showtime’s Homeland, USA’s Covert Affairs and BBC/Cinemax’s Hunted on the TV at home and Skyfall dominating multiplexes, does anyone else feel just a bit spied out?).

Restless premieres on the Sundance Channel on December 7, with its conclusion airing the following week on December 14

By Lacy Baugher for Drama on November 21st, 2012
Lacy Baugher

Lacy's love of British TV is embarrassingly extensive, but primarily centers around evangelizing all things Doctor Who, and watching as many period dramas as possible.

Digital media type by day, she also has a fairly useless degree in British medieval literature, and dearly loves to talk about dream poetry, liminality, and the medieval religious vision. (Sadly, that opportunity presents itself very infrequently.) York apologist, Ninth Doctor enthusiast, and unabashed Ravenclaw. Say hi on Threads or Blue Sky at @LacyMB. 

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  • Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery Joins the Cast of Restless

    Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery is set to join Rufus Sewell, Michael Gambon, Charlotte Rampling and Hayley Atwlell in the BBC’s upcoming two-part adaptation of William Boyd’s best-selling novel Restless.

    Dockery will play Ruth, a young girl who discovers that her mother Sally is really a spy named Eva, who was recruited by the British Secret Service at the start of World War II and has been living a double life on the run ever since. Rambling and Atwell will both play Eva, thirty years apart. Sewell and Gambon will also pull double character duty, both playing Lucas Romer, Eva’s former handler and lover. It all sounds quite complicated – but very interesting too!

    Acclaimed theater director Ed Hall has signed on to run things behind the scenes, and Boyd – whose Any Human Heart aired on Masterpiece last year – will be adapting his own novel for the small screen.

    "To have the chance to film a novel like Restless over three hours is the sort of opportunity that only a television adaptation can provide,” Boyd said.

    "It represents the most enticing and alluring of possibilities - not only to tell an enthralling story of wartime espionage, love and betrayal but also to lift the lid on one of the last secrets of the Second World War."

    Restless is due to screen on BBC One in late 2012. No hard date has been established for when we might see this drama here in the States, but the Hollywood Reporter says the project will broadcast in the US “later this year” as well.

    By Lacy Baugher for Drama on 7/3/2012