The BBC has teased us with some stills from new crime drama The Serpent – and oh, it looks so good.
The eight-part series, produced by Mammoth Screen, will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and on Netflix internationally.
Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman are pictured above as murderer Charles Sobhraj and his partner Marie-Andrée Leclerc. Below, Billy Howle and Ellie Bamber seen for the first time as Herman and Angela Knippenberg
The Serpent
Inspired by real events, The Serpent tells the remarkable story of how Sobhraj (played Rahim) was captured.
Sobraj was the chief suspect in unsolved murders of young Western travellers across India, Thailand and Nepal’s ‘Hippie Trail’ in 1975 and 1976.
He had repeatedly slipped from the grasp of authorities worldwide to become Interpol’s most wanted man. He has arrest warrants on three different continents.
When Herman Knippenberg (Howle), a junior diplomat at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, unwittingly walked into Sobhraj’s intricate web of crime, he set off an extraordinary chain of events that saw Knippenberg seek to bring Sobhraj to justice for his terrible crimes.
Show cast
The Serpent also features Tim McInnerny, Alice Englert, Mathilde Warnier, Gregoire Isvarine, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Fabien Frankel, Chicha Amatayakul, Surasak Chaiyaat, Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis, Armand Rosbak, Ellie de Lange, Ilker Kaleli and screen newcomer Amesh Edireweera in key roles across the series.
Commissioned by BBC One, The Serpent will consist of eight one hour episodes.
It’s produced by Mammoth Screen, part of ITV Studios, and is a co-production between BBC One and Netflix.
Series writers are Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay, directed by Tom Shankland and Hans Herbots and produced by Stephen Smallwood.
Executive producer are Richard Warlow, Tom Shankland, Preethi Mavahalli and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen.
The new drama is currently being filmed on location in Thailand.