Sean Bean Joins Peter Bowker’s BBC One WWII Epic Drama ‘World On Fire’

Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings star Sean Bean is joining the cast of BBC One drama World on Fire.

The actor will star alongside Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets) and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) in the seven-part World War II epic.

Also joining the cast is A Very English Scandal and The Inbetweeners star Blake Harrison, Yrsa Daley-Ward (Today Will Burn), Ansu Kabia (The Long Song) and Ewan Mitchell (The Last Kingdom).

The Mammoth Screen-produced drama is written by The A Word’s Peter Bowker. It is a multi-stranded drama that looks at World War II through the eyes of ordinary people from all sides of the conflict. The first seven-episode season will follow the first year of the war, starting with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and ending with the Battle of Britain.

Polish Academy Award-winner Zofia Wichłacz (Warsaw 44) and Brian J. Smith (Sense8) also star along with Parker Sawyers (The Autopsy of Jane Doe), Tomasz Kot (Cold War), Bruno Alexander (Eden), Johannes Zeiler (Faust) and Eugénie Derouand (Genius).

Filming started in Prague last month and other filming locations include Manchester, London, Paris and Berlin. ITV Studios Global Entertainment handles global distribution for World on Fire. The seven-part drama was developed by Mammoth’s Creative Director Rebecca Keane and executive produced by Bowker, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen and Lucy Richer for the BBC. The producer is Chris Clough and Adam Smith will direct the first three episodes.

Bean said, “I am thrilled to be part of this ambitious drama. Peter Bowker’s study of the human stories that thread through this huge global conflict is fascinating and something I look forward to being part of on screen.”

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