close to the enemy
Close to the Enemy begins at 9pm tonight (10 November). BBC

Before you start rolling your eyes at the prospect of another Second World War drama, writer Stephen Poliakoff returns with a seven-part period drama for BBC2 in bomb-damaged London – despite most scenes being filmed in Liverpool.

The first episode sees Lotte and her father Dieter Koehler (August Diehl) – a recently captured German scientist – arrive in England post WW2.

Intelligence officer Callum Ferguson (Jim Sturgess) – who thinks his war duties are over – is assigned with the final task of persuading Koehler into offering a helping hand to the RAF to develop the jet engine that is crucial to national security.

The two men eventually develop a friendship; but everything is not as it seems, as we'll find out as the drama-filled, action-packed series unravels over the next few weeks. Joining them in the cast are Freddie Highmore and Charlotte Riley from Peaky Blinders – who has just been cast to play Kate Middleton in the BBC one-off feature length drama, King Charles III.

Viewers may detect Poliakoff's magic touch with his love of once glamorous but now near-derelict faded buildings as Ferguson moves Koehler and his daughter into a cavernous hotel where mysterious prostitutes saunter through the hallways at night.

Sturgess said of the new series: "Stephen Poliakoff's screenplays are so different from anyone else's. It felt as if you were reading a novel – I was really drawn into the world that he creates so articulately."

Close to the Enemy begins on Thursday (10 November) at 9pm on BBC2.