BBC One has released first-look images of its new crime thriller The Serpent, which is set to debut later this year.

The six-part drama, which is inspired by real events, tells the story of how French serial killer Charles Sobhraj was eventually captured by international authorities in the 1970s and features a star-studded cast.

French actor Tahar Rahim (The Looming Tower) stars as Sobhraj, alongside Jenna Coleman (Victoria, The Cry) as his partner Marie-Andrée Leclerc. Billy Howle (On Chesil Beach) plays Herman Knippenberg – a junior diplomat based at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok – who seeks to bring Sobhraj to justice, while Ellie Bamber (The Trial of Christine Keeler) plays the role of his wife, Angela.

The drama follows Sobhraj, the chief suspect in a series of unsolved murders of young Western travellers across Asia, as he repeatedly slips the grasp of the authorities worldwide to become Interpol’s most wanted man.

Knippenberg unwittingly walks into the suspect’s intricate web of crime and sets off “an extraordinary chain of events that saw Knippenberg seek to bring Sobhraj to justice for his terrible crimes”.

Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay – the writers behind BBC One’s Ripper Street – penned the crime drama, which is a joint production between BBC One and Netflix.

The series is directed by Tom Shankland (Les Misérables miniseries) and Hans Herbots (Sky One’s Riviera), and was filmed on location in Thailand.

The cast also features Tim McInnerny, Alice Englert, Mathilde Warnier, Gregoire Isvarine, Sahajak Boonthanakit and Fabien Frankel in key roles across the series.

The Serpent will air on BBC One later this year

Check the pictures in our gallery:

Television Productions > The Serpent (2020) > Stills