Natalie Gumede and Richard E Grant cast in Jekyll & Hyde drama

ITV's adaptation is set in 1930s London and centres on Jekyll's grandson

By Natasha Preskey

9 January 2015

RadioTimes

Richard E Grant and Coronation Street alumnus Natalie Gumede are to appear in ITV's Jekyll and Hyde adaptation.

If you were going easy on the mulled wine, you may also recognise Gumede from the recent Doctor Who Christmas special, where she joined the Doctor and Clara in the fight against the terrifying dream crabs. Grant is also a Who veteran: he played monster without a body the Great Intelligence when Matt Smith was at the helm. 

In Jekyll and Hyde, Gumede will play Bella, a woman caught up in a love triangle with Dr Jekyll’s grandson, while Grant will play the head of a secret government department.

Set in 1930s London, the drama will follow Robert Jekyll (The Tunnel’s Tom Bateman), a young doctor who doesn’t know he has inherited his grandfather’s habit of transforming into malevolent alter-ego Mr Hyde.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has spawned film, TV, theatre, radio, musical and written adaptations. In 2007, the BBC aired a modern-day ‘sequel’ to the story, starring James Nesbitt as Tom Jackman, a descendent of Dr. Jekyll.  

Jekyll and Hyde will begin filming in February.