SCOTTISH actors David Tennant and Robert Carlyle have appeared alongside Mr Bates Vs The Post Office star Toby Jones in the trailer for a new drama about how a journalist exposed a phone hacking scandal and brought down “a media empire”.
The trailer for ITV’s The Hack sees Tennant, 53, portray investigative journalist Nick Davies, who helped uncover evidence of phone hacking at the News Of The World.
Jones, 58, plays the former editor-in chief of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, which covered the story in depth.
The scandal led to the News Of The World’s closure in 2011 and since then News Group Newspapers (NGN) has settled a number of damages claims from high-profile figures concerning unlawful information-gathering.
Earlier this year, the Duke of Sussex settled his legal action against the publisher of The Sun and received an apology from NGN.
The trailer opens with Tennant narrating the outcome of the scandal and investigation.
He said: “This is a story that ends in seven major police investigations, nearly 40 convictions, and some of the most powerful people in this country being brought to their knees.”
Set between 2002 and 2012, the seven-part series interweaves two real-life stories, the work of Davies (Tennant), and the investigation into the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan. The investigation was led by former Metropolitan Police detective chief superintendent Dave Cook, who is played by Carlyle.
Morgan, a 37-year-old father-of-two, was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, on March 10, 1987.
His brother Alastair claimed the News Of The World had followed and spied on Cook during his inquiries into the death.
A string of inquiries over the decades have unearthed allegations of corruption and led to accusations that the Met put its reputation above finding the killer.
Watch the full new trailer for The Hack ITV series
Who has written the ITV series The Hack?
The Hack was co-written by Jack Thorne, who was behind the hit Netflix series Adolescence, and directed by Sherwood’s Lewis Arnold.
Annalisa Dinnella wrote one of the episodes and co-wrote two others with Thorne.
The series is executive-produced by Joe Williams and Patrick Spence – who produced Mr Bates, the drama which renewed attention on the subpostmasters who were wrongly prosecuted during the Horizon IT scandal.
When will The Hack start on ITV?
The Hack will air on ITV and STV and be available for streaming on ITVX and STV Player.
