Angela Lansbury and Michael Gambon head up cast for the BBC’s new Little Women adaptation

Filming will begin later this year 
Starring role: Angela Lansbury will play Aunt March in the new series
AFP PHOTO / JUSTIN TALLISJUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

Angela Lansbury and Michael Gambon will star in the BBC’s new adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel Little Women, it has been announced.

The coming-of-age novel revolves around the lives of the March girls – four sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March - as they journey from childhood to adulthood, guided by their mother Marmee.

Earlier this year the BBC announced a new three-part production of the beloved story, which will be adapted for the broadcaster by Call the Midwife’s Heidi Thomas and directed by Vanessa Caswell Thirteen, My Mad Fat Diary).

Gambon, who’s best known for his turn as Hogwarts head teacher Dumbledore in all but two of the Harry Potter films, will play the Marchs’ kindly neighbour Mr Laurence.

Hollywood take: Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women
Joseph Lederer/Di Novi/Columbia/Kobal/Rex

Meanwhile Lansbury, whose most recognisable role was that of writer Jessica Fletcher in TV crime drama Murder She Wrote, will be the sisters’ cantankerous Aunt March.

World's favourite BBC TV characters - In pictures

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Other notable names on the cast list include Emily Watson (Apple Tree Yard, The Theory of Everything) as March family matriarch Marmee, while her four daughters will be played by up-and-coming actresses Maya Hawke as Jo, Willa Fitzgerald as Meg, Annes Elwy as Beth and Kathryn Newton as Amy.

Filming for the mini-series which is produced by Playground, will start in July, and it’s expected to air on BBC One later this year or early next.

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