A new tonight (June 12), as two of the biggest names from British TV star in medical legal drama Best Interests.
Best Interests, which starts on Monday night at 9pm, follows two parents who fight to stop doctors from turning off their daughter’s life support machine.
Leading the cast are Irish actress Sharon Horgan and Welsh actor Michael Sheen, who face tough decisions on how to approach their daughter’s medical care.
A BBC description explains that Andrew (Sheen) and Nicci’s (Sharon Horgan) daughter, Marnie (Niamh Moriarty), has a life-threatening condition.
‘The doctors believe it is in her best interests to be allowed to die, but her loving family disagree,’ the plot synopsis goes on to say.
Teasing courtroom action, it says: ‘So begins a fight that will take them through every stage of a legal process, as they struggle to contemplate this huge decision.’
But who is in the cast for the new series?
Sharon Horgan (Nicci Lloyd)
Sharon Horgan, 52, leads the cast as Nicci Lloyd, the mother of Marnie, whose illness is at the centre of the events of the series.
She is best known for starring in Channel 4 comedy drama Catastrophe, and creating 2000s sitcom Pulling alongside Dennis Kelly.
In recent months, Sharon’s latest work, Dreamland, starring Lily Allen, premiered on Sky Atlantic before becoming available through Now TV.
Michael Sheen (Andrew Lloyd)
Michael Sheen, 54, will play Andrew Lloyd, Marnie’s father. Michael is known for many roles on stage and on screen, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former football manager Brian Clough.
Marnie Lloyd (Niamh Moriarty)
Niamh Moriarty, who will play Marnie, is a newcomer to TV, with this being her first ever role on the small screen.
A teenager with cerebral palsy, Niamh told that she felt she owed it to her character to bring her own life experience into her performance.
‘I was able to bring a lot of my own life experience into understanding how to play her properly. I wanted to portray that as accurately as possible for the people who would be in that circumstance.’
Derek (Lucian Msamati)
Playing Queen’s Counsel and qualified barrister Derek is Lucian Msamati, who will be best known to TV viewers from his work on Game of Thrones.
Appearing in the second, third, and fourth seasons of the US fantasy series, Lucian played Salladhor Saan, a pirate hired by Stephen Dillane’s Stannis Baratheon.
He has also appeared in Gangs of London, His Dark Materials, and, on the big screen, alongside Saoirse Ronan and Adrien Brody in See How They Run.
Katie Lloyd (Alison Oliver)
Playing the Lloyds’ other daughter Katie, sister to Marnie, is Irish actress Alison Oliver, who rose to fame as Frances in BBC drama Conversations With Friends.
The series, adapted from Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name, followed on from the success of Normal People is able to watch on BBC iPlayer.
The rest of the cast is made up of Chizzy Akudolu, who plays Mercy Babayaro; Lisa McGrillis as Marnie’s nurse Brenda Haskins; Des McAleer as Nicci’s dad (Marnie’s granddad); and actor Shane Zaza playing Nicci’s solicitor Fred Hoozer.
