Lead role in BBC Two mini-series

Jack Whitehall is to star in the BBC’s adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline And Fall.

And Eva Longoria is in final talks to be his co-star, Hollywood industry website Deadline reports.

Whitehall will play Paul Pennyfeather, the central character of the classic social satire, who is sent down from Oxford after a wild Bollinger Club party. 

Following a stint in London, he winds up teaching at a tenth-rate private boys’ school in rural Wales where for wealthy and beautiful South African Margot Beste-Chetwynde, who Longoria is in line to play.

Pennyfeather’s travels then take him to Marseille and into trouble which results in him ending up in a British prison.

Rev creator James Wood is adapting the 1928 novel into a  three-part miniseries for BBC Two. Guillem Morales, who has helmed several Inside No 9 episodes, is set to direct. 

The book has not been adapted for the screen before, but last year the BBC made a version for Radio 4 with Kieran Hodgson in the lead role.

The miniseries is a big step in Whitehall’s acting career, following on from Fresh Meat and the Bad Education series and film. He also appears in the Hollywood comedy Mother’s Day, which is released on Friday.

Published: 7 Jun 2016