Oscar-nominated Dame Judi Dench will star in a new five-part period
drama series under development for BBC1, based on novels by Elizabeth Gaskell. The Cranford Chronicles follows the lives of ordinary people living in the small rural town of Cranford in Cheshire during the course of 1842.

Dame Judi takes the part of Matty Jenkyns. Forced to give up the man she loved, she has since spent her life in the shadow of her elder sister.

Screenwriter Sue Birtwistle – whose credits include Pride and Prejudice – and Susie Conklin have created the drama from five Gaskell novels, and the script is written by Heidi Thomas, who wrote the current BBC1 period drama Lilies.

BBC fiction controller Jane Tranter, said: "To have Dame Judi Dench, Sue Birtwistle and Heidi Thomas on one drama serial is an honour for BBC drama."

Filming begins in April in the Cotswolds and London.