Fresh off her Emmy Award win for her role as AFC Richmond club owner Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso, Hannah Waddingham has joined the cast of the upcoming Tom Jones miniseries adaptation, based on the 1749 novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding. The show is currently filming in Northern Ireland, and stars The Rising's Solly McLeod as the titular character.
The miniseries, which is a co-production between PBS Masterpiece, ITV, and Mammoth Screen, has already cast several other characters, including Sophie Wilde (You Don’t Know Me) as the heroine Sophia Western and Pearl Mackie (Doctor Who) as Sophia’s trusted maid, Honour. Waddingham has been cast as the "seductive but vengeful" Lady Bellaston, a relative to Sophia and one of Tom's lovers who has a somewhat notorious and passionate personality.
More newcomers to the cast include James Fleet (Bridgerton) as Squire Allworthy, Tom’s warm-hearted adoptive father; Alun Armstrong (Breeders) as Squire Western, Sophia’s hard drinking but loving grandfather, and Shirley Henderson (Happy Valley) as Sophia’s Aunt Western.
Previously-announced cast members include Tamzin Merchant (Carnival Row) as Sophia’s Aunt Harriet, with Julian Rhind-Tutt (Britannia) as her bellicose husband Fitzpatrick. Susannah Fielding (Life) is Mrs. Waters. Additionally, Daniel Rigby (Black Mirror) is the disgraced schoolteacher Partridge, who befriends Tom on his journey; James Wilbraham (In My Skin) is Tom’s bitter cousin Blifil; Felicity Montagu (The Durrells in Corfu) plays Blifil's mother Bridget Allworthy, a devoted aunt to Tom, and Janine Duvitski (Benidorm) is Mrs. Wilkins, Allworthy’s testy housekeeper. Dean Lennox Kelly (Jamestown) is poacher-turned-gamekeeper Black George and Lucy Fallon (Coronation Street) is his daughter Molly, who charms young Tom.
Tom Jones is written by Gwyneth Hughes (Vanity Fair, Miss Austen Regrets), directed by Georgia Parris (Mari), and produced by Benjamin Greenacre. Executive producers are James Gandhi, Gwyneth Hughes, Damien Timmer and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen, Susanne Simpson and Rebecca Eaton for Masterpiece, and Polly Hill for ITV.
No release date has been confirmed for the miniseries, so stay tuned to Collider for more info.