War and Peace: Lifetime, A&E, History to Simulcast BBC Series

Photo by BBC/Laurie Sparham
Copyright 2015

BBC One will begin airing its limited series adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, in UK, sometime this winter. In January 2016, A&E Networks will simulcast the adaptation, written by Andrew Davies, on its channels Lifetime, A&E, and History, for its US audience.

The War and Peace cast includes: Gillian Anderson, Jim Broadbent, Rebecca Front, Paul Dano, Lily James, James Norton, Kenneth Cranham, Aneurin Barnard, Tuppence Middleton, Callum Turner, Jessie Buckley, Brian Cox, Ken Stott, Stephen Rea, Ade Edmondson, Greta Scacchi, Jack Lowden, Tom Burke, and Aisling Lotus. Continue on for a press release from A&E Networks.

Here’s the press release:

Lifetime, A&E and HISTORY are partnering with The Weinstein Company, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point on a major limited series event based on Leo Tolstoy’s enduring novel War and Peace.

Set upon the backdrop of Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia, War and Peace is a story of passion, romance, scandal and deceit surrounding the rising and falling fortunes of five aristocratic families – the Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys, Drubetskoys, Kuragins and Rostovs – in the waning days of imperial Russia. War and Peace’s lead is Andrei Bolkonsky, a dashing and heroic young man who yearns for glory in war but finds only heartbreak and disillusionment that may, or may not, be cured by the lovely Natasha Rostov, who desperately needs to marry well to save her family from financial ruin. Meanwhile, the awkward, illegitimate son Pierre Bezukhov suddenly finds himself in possession of great wealth and, consequently, at the mercy of fortune hunters eager to take advantage of his naiveté. Broadbent will portray Andrei’s father Prince Bolkonsky, while Anderson will play Anna Pavlovna.

Coming January 2016

What do you think? Have you read War and Peace? Do you plan to watch the series?