How to feel about this? A new period drama starring Toby Stephens (Lost in Space), Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty, The Durrells), Timothy Spall (Mr Turner) and Linus Roache (Vikings) set during the Cold War – and coming to the BBC – sounds almost too good to be true.

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But bare in mind that it's coming from the hands of writer and director Stephen Poliakoff, and so will be the first drama from Poliakoff since his highly stylised Close To The Enemy which, with its unrealistic conversations and clipped intonation, divided audiences and had mixed reviews.

On the other hand, thousands of people fawned over his Dancing on the Edge 2013 series, which followed a black jazz band in 1930s London, and before that the twinned dramas Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary. So perhaps we've excellent boundary-pushing drama to look forward to.

Production on the series is already underway in and around London and Oxford, and the Beeb has released some information about it. According to the BBC, the drama follows Samuel (Stephens) a '40 something Russian Jewish émigré, inventor and designer of bespoke hearing aids, whose clients include former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill'.

Samuel is soon approached by M15 and asked to foster friendships with Kathleen (Hawes) and her husband Richard Shaw MP (Roache), whom Samuel gets to know via Lord Arthur Wellington (Spall). His mission begins to pull at the heart of his life and family,

The six-part period drama is set during the Cold War in 1958 against the creation of Britain's hydrogen bomb and the terse relations between Russia and the West as the space race begins to heat up.

'I have wanted to work with Stephen for years, so I’m delighted to be part of such a wonderful cast, and can’t wait to spend the summer with them all,' Keeley Hawes said.

'It’s great to be working with Stephen Poliakoff again after such a long time,' said Stephens who worked on his miniseries Perfect Strangers. 'He’s such a unique and original voice in British television.'