Airdate: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Tomorrow BBC First premieres the 7 part period drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, featuring Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel.

Based on the bestselling novel by Susanna Clarke and adapted by Peter Harness (Wallander, Is Anybody There?), the cast also includes Bertie Carvel (Doctor Foster), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes), Marc Warren (The Musketeers), Charlotte Riley (Peaky Blinders) , Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures), Samuel West (Mr Selfridge), Enzo Cilenti (Wolf Hall), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Edward Hogg (Indian Summers), Ariyon Bakare (Inspector Lewis), Vincent Franklin (Cucumber), John Heffernan (Ripper Street), Brian Pettifer (The Musketeers).

Set at the beginning of the 19th-century, England no longer believes in practical magic. That is until the reclusive Mr Norrell (Marsan) stuns the city of York when he causes the statues of York Cathedral to speak and move. He goes to London to offer his services to the government in the war against Napoleon – but rising politician Sir Walter Pole refuses to align himself with such a disreputable art as magic.

Disconsolate at his lack of success, Mr Norrell is set to return home, until news comes of the death of Sir Walter’s sickly, and wealthy, fiancée (Alice Englert). Mr Norrell makes a dangerous pact with a mysterious Gentleman to restore her to life, proving magic respectable and establishing himself as the greatest magician in the land.

Meanwhile, the charming and dissolute Jonathan Strange (Carvel), more interested in drinking wine and winning the hand of the beautiful Arabella than reading dusty magical books, discovers that he too has magical powers.

Thursdays at 8.30pm from August 6 on BBC First.