Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Meera Syal cast in BBC1 Abi Morgan drama The Split

Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Meera Syal are set to head the cast in The Split, a new drama about "modern marriage and the legacy of divorce” penned for BBC1 by Bafta-winning writer Abi Morgan.

The six-parter will see Walker (River, Unforgotten) play Hannah, a divorce lawyer who navigates “scandalous affairs, big-figure settlements and fraught relationship battles”.

Syal (Goodness Gracious Me) will star as Goldie, a woman going through a bitter divorce with her multi-millionaire husband, while Mangan (Green Wing, Episodes) will play Hannah’s husband Nathan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwieTMH8EY

Joining them in the female-led cast is Fiona Button (Lip Service), Deborah Findlay (Leaving), Annabel Scholey (Being Human), Barry Atsma (Hector and the Search for Happiness) and Stephen Tompkinson (DCI Banks).

The crew, too, is led by women. Abi Morgan, whose credits include River, Suffragette, The Iron Lady and The Hour, will pen the series. And it will be produced and directed by the women behind Broadchurch – Bafta-winning Jane Featherstone and Jessica Hobbs.

ITV describes The Split as “an authentic, layered and witty exploration of modern marriage and the legacy of divorce through the lens of the Defoes – a family of female lawyers at the heart of London’s fast-paced and emotionally-charged divorce circuit”.

Walker said: “I'm delighted to be joining the Defoe family and walking in Hannah's shoes as she picks her way through other people's marriages and relationships, all the while questioning her own.”

Production begins in the UK this month.