David Morrissey to star in BBC2 adaptation of Miéville's The City & The City

Fantasy writer China Miéville's 2009-published noir thriller The City & The City (Macmillan) is being adapted for a four-part BBC Two drama starring David Morrissey as Inspector Tyador Borlú.

Alongside "The Missing" star Morrissey in the lead role, the cast includes Mandeep Dhillon, who played Saz Kaur in BBC Three show "Some Girls", as Constable Corwi of the Besźel Policzai, German actress Maria Schrader as Senior Detective Dhatt of the Ul Qoma Militsya, Ron Cook, who played Mr Crabb in ITV's "Mr Selfridge", as Borlú’s superior Commissar Gadlem, Danny Webb, from "Humans", as hard-right nationalist politician Major Syedr, and Christian Camargo as Doctor Bowden, an American academic.

The book, about the discovery of the body of a foreign student and the investigation that follows linking two cities, is being adapted by Tony Grisoni and directed by Tom Shankland in a production made by Mammoth Screen. It will be filmed on location in Manchester and Liverpool. 

Miéville, three-time winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, said: "It’s been fascinating and moving to witness the translation from fiction to script, and to work with Tony (Grisoni) and Tom (Shankland) and everyone on this production. What they’re making feels both familiar, sending me right back to the book, and yet very much their own, something I’m eager to discover. I’m extremely impatient for it."

Piers Wenger, controller of BBC Drama, called The City & The City "a truly extraordinary story", promising a "humane" and "skillful" reimagining of it. Executive producer Preethi Mavahalli added: "Set in divided cities where communities live cheek by jowl, choosing what they see, and 'unsee', this is a story that explores the way we live together today. The City & The City is a noir thriller with a fantastical twist which will quite literally break boundaries with its unique take on the murder mystery."

The producer for "The City & The City" is Betsan Morris-Evans, and its executive producer Robyn Slovo alongside Tony Grisoni, Preethi Mavahalli and Damien Timmer from Mammoth Screen and Lucy Richer for the BBC. It will air later this year.

Most recently Mammoth Screen's BBC Two production "NW", the adaptation of Zadie Smith's novel, was nominated for two 2017 BAFTA British Academy Television Awards.