THE casting has been announced for the eagerly awaited ITV adaptation of Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins which will be filmed in the county.

Merrily will be played by Anna Maxwell Martin, star of The Bletchley Circle and the PD James Jane Austen sequel, Death Comes to Pemberley.

David Threlfall, currently heading the cast of the crime drama Code of a Killer, is Merrily’s mentor.

Shooting will start soon on the county’s Welsh border and the cameras are also expected to be visiting Weobley and Dilwyn.

Mr Rickman, a novelist based in Hay-on- Wye, said he was “delighted and relieved”

when he heard the names of the actors.

He added: “Anna Maxwell-Martin is as close as anyone could get to my impression of Merrily, and David Threlfall will just become Huw Owen – he never fails.

“I’m also really glad they went on the Black and White trail for the village. I was scared they’d choose somewhere more convenient but less convincing.”