Stephen Rea and Janet McTeer join Maggie Gyllenhaal in BBC2 drama The Honourable Woman

Janet McTeer and Stephen Rea. The Oscar-nominated stars have been added to the cast of BBC thriller series The Honourable Woman. (PA)

Oscar-nominated stars Stephen Rea and Janet McTeer have been added to the cast of BBC thriller series The Honourable Woman.

They join Hollywood star Maggie Gyllenhaal in the seven-part drama to be screened by BBC2 next year.

McTeer - twice up for an Academy Award for her performances in Albert Nobbs and Tumbleweeds - will portray the head of MI6 in the production written and directed by Hugo Blick, who created tense conspiracy drama The Shadow Line.

Rea, who was in the running for an Oscar with The Crying Game, plays Hugh Hayden-Hoyle - a top MI6 spy on the verge of retirement, who is digging into the family of his colleague Nessa Stein (the honourable woman of the title, played by Gyllenhaal).

Also added to the cast are Lindsay Duncan, Andrew Buchan - who has been seen in Garrow's Law and Broadchurch - and Katherine Parkinson, who has featured in The IT Crowd.

Eve Best - who, like Rea, appeared in The Shadow Line - is also in the series starring as a key MI6 agent in the Washington Bureau who is at loggerheads with her UK counterparts.

The series will also be screened in the US by the Sundance Channel, which is co-producing the drama.

PA