David Morrissey and Nicola Stephenson are to join the regular cast of the critically acclaimed BBC1 drama, Clocking Off, for its third series.
Morrissey has featured in previous heavyweight BBC dramas, such as Holding On and Our Mutual Friend. Stephenson was last seen in the BBC1 medical series, Holby City.
Clocking Off is set in a Manchester factory and each episode focuses on a different character.
For the third series, the cast regulars, Philip Glenister, Siobhan Finneran and Joan Kempson will also be joined by Sophie Okonedo, Marc Warren and Phil Cornwell.
Paul Abbott, the creator of Clocking Off, will again oversee the scripts, assisted by the writers, Matt Greenhalgh, Daniel Brocklehurst, Peter Bowker, John Fay and Jan McVerry.
The third series is being shot on location in Manchester by Red Productions and will be screened on BBC1 next year.
The executive producer is Red's founder, Nicola Shindler, and the producer is Juliet Charlesworth.
Separately, Anita Dobson and Steven Berkoff have joined the regular cast of the BBC1 police drama, NCS, which has been recommissioned for next year.
Dobson and Berkoff will play the prime suspects in the first of three NCS two-part stories.
NCS follows the activities of the members of an elite serious crime squad, played by David Suchet, Samantha Bond, Melanie Hill and Keith Barron.
The drama is a BBC in-house production and is written and executive produced by Malcolm McKay.
