Eve Best & Stockard Channing Join Suranne Jones’ Drama ‘Maryland’
The upcoming Suranne Jones-starring drama series Maryland has added Eve Best (House of the Dragon) and Stockard Channing (The Good Wife) to its cast.
Created by Jones (Gentlemen Jack) and Anne-Marie O’Connor (Trollied), Maryland centers on the relationship between two sisters who have been driven apart by complex family dynamics. Jones plays the down-to-earth mother of two, Becca, while Best plays the disciplined high-flyer, Rosaline. The three-part drama will air on ITVX in the U.K., while ITV Studios has distribution rights for international markets.
According to Deadline, the series sees the two sisters travel to the Isle of Man to repatriate the body of their mother, Mary, leaving their father, Richard (George Costigan), at home in Manchester. While confined on the island, Becca and Rosaline discover shocking information about their mother and find it impossible to escape the ripple effect of her secrets and lies.
Best is currently starring as Rhaenys Targaryen in HBO’s House of the Dragon. She is also known for playing Dr. Eleanor O’Hara in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, First Lady Dolley Madison in the American Experience television special, and Monica Chatwin in the BBC miniseries The Honourable Woman.
Channing, best known for portraying First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC political drama The West Wing and playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease, stars as Cathy, a larger-than-life American spiritual friend of the mother on the island. Her other TV credits include the sitcom Out of Practice, the legal drama The Good Wife, and the anthology comedy series The Guest Book.
The cast also includes Hugh Quarshie (Stephen), Dean Lennox Kelly (Jamestown), and Andrew Knott (Tin Star).
“Maryland is a beautifully moving story of two sisters, and it’s hard to believe this is Anne-Marie’s first original drama commission,” said ITV’s Polly Hill (via Deadline). “It’s a story developed by Suranne Jones and Anne-Marie, and it has been wonderful working with them and Monumental, to bring this story to screen.”
Maryland, 2023, TBA