Fantastic news for Joseph - he is about to start filming a leading role, Major Ross, in the new BBC 2 drama Banished, by Jimmy McGovern. The 8 part historical drama will film in UK and Australia, until June this year. 

Jimmy McGovern says: “In 1787 when Britain banished its petty thieves, whores, orphans and highwaymen – to Sydney Cove, a place so hot and barren and hostile that very few people had ever set foot there. It was an audacious social experiment, unparalled before or since. Yet these rejects from Britain, accompanied by soldiers, officers, a vicar and a doctor, survived against all the odds, in spite of famine, drought, escapes, hangings and floggings, the colony thrived. This is their story.” This fictional account of human courage and endeavour, love, loss and terrible choices begins several months after the First Fleet has arrived. It is told through the eyes of three convicts: James Freeman, Tommy Barrett and Elizabeth Quinn. Their passionate friendship is a rollercoaster of survival set between the deadly, bush and the infinite blue of the mighty Pacific Ocean.

This follows the wonderful news for Joseph's wife Sarah-Jane Potts who, it was announced this week, was cast as Gemma in Gracepoint, the US remake of Broadchurch.