Helen Mirren to play Catherine the Great on Sky

This week – not content with the news that Meryl Streep would be starring in season two of Big Little Lies – there's more breaking news from HBO as Sky announces that multi-award-winning actress Helen Mirren will be taking the lead in the a four-part drama about Catherine the Great.

Eye in the Sky actress Helen Mirren will star as Catherine the Great in a hot new drama that examines the extreme power of the monarch throughout Russia for nearly half of the18th century.

It's easy to see why Mirren, who has been outspoken for many years about limited portrayal of women on screen, would be tempted to play a character like this. Catherine, Sky said, was 'strong-minded, independent, brilliantly intelligent and sexually liberated, she was the definition of the modern woman'.

The mini-series is set to start filming later in 2018 and will follow Catherine through her passionate affair with Grigory Potemkin to the end of her reign amid scandal, conflict and 'obsessive love'. Expect to see lavish palaces, bursting corsets (Catherine was, we're told, 'famously promiscuous') and the origins of Russia as we know it.

Helen Mirren said: 'I am very excited by the possibility of embodying a woman from history who grabbed and then wielded great power. She rewrote the rules of governance by a woman, and succeeded to the extent of having the word Great attached to her name, Catherine the Great. I am very grateful to have HBO and Sky as partners in this endeavour. There are no other homes on television that bring the support and understanding needed for this kind of project.'

Catherine the Great, produced by Origin Pictures and New Pictures, will air on Sky Atlantic and TV streaming service NOW TV in the UK and Ireland next year.