Miss Austen will be airing on the BBC this week with Gill Hornby’s historical novel getting the small screen treatment.
The four-part series is set in 1830, many years after the death of Jane Austen (Patsy Ferran) and follows her sister Cassandra Austen (played by Keeley Hawes) as she helps her niece Isabella Fowle (Rose Leslie) settle her father’s estate in the wake of his death.
However, Cassandra has ulterior motives for her visit and seeks out her sister’s private correspondence.
Many viewers may be keen to know more about lead star Hawes both on and off-screen.
The 48-year-old actress is no stranger to screens having successfully carved out a career starting in the 1980s.
But it was her appearances in Tipping the Velvet and Spooks in the early Noughties, which propelled her into the spotlight.
Since then, Hawes has been a firm fixture on screens. She went on to star in the likes of Ashes to Ashes and Line of Duty, which won her further acclaim.
More recent roles include The Durrells, It’s A Sin, and Honour, and she reunited with Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio in 2018 for Bodyguard.
She also starred in Sky’s science fiction drama The Midwich Cuckoos with her Miss Austen co-star Synnøve Karlsen, who plays the young Casandra in the BBC period piece.
Last year, Hawes fronted another big project with an all-female line-up when she starred in the Netflix film Scoop alongside Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper.
She has been nominated for several BAFTA TV Awards during her career.
According to IMDb, Hawes will next be appearing in the TV series The Assassin.
Away from the camera, Hawes is married to fellow actor Matthew Macfadyen – best known for Succession and playing Mr Darcy in Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Macfadyen and Hawes met on the set of Spooks and went on to wed in 2004. They have two children together daughter Maggie, 20, and son Ralph, 18.
She was previously married to cartoonist and disc jockey Spencer McCallum with the pair sharing son Myles, 24.
Hawes and Macfadyen, 50, have also shared the screen together in the dark comedy Death at a Funeral and ITV series Stonehouse.
Miss Austen airs on BBC One on Sunday, February 2 at 9.05pm and will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer from 6am
