Marianne Jean-Baptiste to star in BBC's thriller 'Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies'

April 21 (UPI) -- Production is underway on The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies, a BBC five-part thriller from sister scribes Penelope and Ginny Skinner.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Alistair Petrie and Rebekah Staton are starring in the project, and Robbie McKillop is the series' lead director.

"This is inordinately exciting. Some of the finest scripts out there," Petrie tweeted.

The cast also includes Romola Garai, Derek Jacobi, Julian Barratt, Karl Johnson and Ellie Haddington.

"This is the story of two very different women (Alice Newman and Cheryl Harker) and the conman (Dr Rob Chance) they have in common; a dark, funny, and unpredictable thriller about three remarkable characters trapped in a tangled triangle of complexly layered half-truths and lies of epic proportions," the British network said in a press release Thursday.

"This is a story about lies and artifice, about our weakness for self-deception, and about the rapid ascent of the modern fraudster. Asking why do 'respectable' psychopaths rise to the top? Why does a posh man in a suit still seem so plausible next to a working-class mum in a pink cape? And if you can't beat them, is joining them really so bad?"