The cast for US cable drama Homeland is getting increasingly full, and now two British talents have leapt aboard in the shape of Damian Lewis and Laura Fraser.
While the show as of now only has a pilot order from the Showtime channel across the pond, it increasingly sounds like something we’d be interested in following. Crafted by 24 veterans Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa alongside Gideon Raff, Homeland follows US Marine Sergeant Scott Brody (the role Lewis will take), who is taken prisoner in Iraq during the 2003 invasion.
After nearly a decade spent in captivity, an attack on an enemy stronghold at last results in his release and return home. But all is not as it seems – at least according to troubled CIA officer Carrie Anderson (Claire Danes). She has reason to believe that Brody’s escape from prison was no coincidence and that he might be part of an Al Qaeda plot to strike at the very core of America.
Fraser is on to play Jessica, Brody’s wife, who has somewhat inconveniently become involved with his best pal in the years since his capture. And Mandy Patinkin has signed on as Saul, a longstanding CIA chief who serves as Carrie’s boss.
Lewis hasn’t always has the best luck with his film roles – Dreamcatcher? Stormbreaker? – but he’s done rather better on the goggle box, having appeared in the likes of Band of Brothers and cop drama Life (even if the latter did get cancelled far too soon). So fingers crossed this one works out for him.