Julie Walters to star in new 10-part period drama Indian Summers on Channel 4

Julie Walters will play a widowed expat living in the Himalayan foothills (Getty Images)

Julie Walters will star in a new Channel 4 period drama set in India during the British rule.

The actress will appear in Indian Summers alongside Harry Potter actor Henry-Lloyd Hughes, Jemima West (The Borgias) Nikesh Patel (Bedlam), Roshan Seth (A Passage to India) and Lillete Dubey (Monsoon Wedding).

The 10-part drama will be Walters’ first TV role since The Hollow Crown for the BBC two years ago.

The actress will play a Cynthia, a widowed expat living in Simla, a Himalayan station popular with Britons during colonial rule.

Set in the summer of 1932, the drama will tell the explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience.

In a statement about the new commission, Channel 4 said: “As Indian Summers begins, the stories of promises, secrets, politics, power, sex and love play out as the British Raj begins to falter and a nation opens its eyes to the possibilities of freedom.”

Alexander Cobb (Mr Selfridge, Call the Midwife), Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty, Misfits), Fiona Glascott (Episodes), Amber Rose Revah (What Remains), Aysha Kala (Shameless), Olivia Grant (Legacy) and Edward Hogg (The Borgias) will also star.

The series, a co-production with US channel PBS, has been written by Vera’s Paul Rutman and will be directed by Anand Tucker.

Indian Summers is due to be broadcast on Channel 4 in 2015 after filming takes place later this year.