First look: Emily Blunt in Hugo Blick’s The English
David Farnor | On 20, Aug 2022
Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place, Sicario) will star in The English, a new BBC Two drama written by Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising, The Shadow Line) – and new images give us a first look at the Western in action.
Blunt stars as Lady Cornelia Locke and Chaske Spencer (Wild Indian, Marvel’s ECHO) plays Eli Whipp in the high-octane series. Produced by Drama Republic (Doctor Foster, Us, The Honourable Woman), The English takes the core themes of identity and revenge to tell a uniquely compelling parable on race, love and power.
It sees the aristocratic Englishwoman and Pawnee ex-cavalry scout come together in 1890 mid-America to cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood. Both of them have a clear sense of their destiny but neither is aware that it is rooted in a shared past. They must face increasingly terrifying obstacles that will test them to their cores, physically and psychologically. But as each obstacle is overcome it draws them closer to their ultimate destination, the new town of Hoxem, Wyoming.
It is here, after an investigation by the local sheriff Robert Marshall (Stephen Rea) and young widow Martha Myers (Valerie Pachner) into a series of bizarre and macabre unsolved murders, that the full extent of their intertwined history will be truly understood, and they will come face to face with the future they must live.
The cast also includes Stephen Rea (The Shadow Line, The Honourable Woman), Valerie Pachner (A Hidden Life, The Kingsman), Rafe Spall (The Salisbury Poisonings, Trying), Tom Hughes (A Discovery Of Witches, Victoria), Toby Jones (Marvellous, Detectorists) and Ciarán Hinds (The Terror, The Woman In Black).
The English will premiere this November on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and then on Amazon Prime Video in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Emily Blunt to star in BBC One’s The English
12th May 2021
Emily Blunt will lead a star-studded cast in BBC One’s The English.
The new drama written by Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising, The Shadow Line) is set in the mythic mid-American landscape in the year of 1890. Produced by Drama Republic (Doctor Foster, Us, Black Earth Rising), the six-episode series is a high-octane western that follows Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt), an Englishwoman who arrives into the new and wild landscape of the West to wreak revenge on the man she sees as responsible for the death of her son.
Blunt is joined on screen by Chaske Spencer (The Twilight Saga, Banshee), Rafe Spall (The Salisbury Poisonings, Trying), Tom Hughes (A Discovery Of Witches, Victoria), Stephen Rea (The Shadow Line, The Honourable Woman), Valerie Pachner (A Hidden Life, The Kingsman), Toby Jones (Marvellous, Detectorists), Ciaran Hinds (The Terror, The Woman In Black), Malcolm Storry (The Princess Bride, Doc Martin), Steve Wall (Raised By Wolves, The Witcher), Nichola McAuliffe (Tomorrow Never Dies, Doctor Who), Sule Rimi (Black Earth Rising, Strike Back) and Cristian Solimeno (Avenue 5, Guilt).
Spencer plays Eli Whipp, an ex-cavalry scout and member of the Pawnee Nation by birth, who joins with Cornelia and discovers a shared history that must be defeated at all costs, if either of them are to survive.
Blick says: “The chance to make a Western with Emily Blunt and the cast is so delicious I’m still wondering if it’s one of those weird dreams we were all having during lockdown. If not, a thrilling, romantic, epic horse-opera is heading to your screen sometime next year, and I couldn’t be more excited.”
Greg Brenman will executive produce for Drama Republic alongside Blick and Blunt. Mona Qureshi will executive produce for the BBC. The producer is Colin Wratten (Killing Eve, The Witness For The Prosecution).
The series will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and on Amazon Prime Video in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Filming is currently underway in Spain.