Belfast actor Stephen Rea is to star in a major new television drama by Emmy-award winning writer Frank Deasy.

Rea, star of Breakfast On Pluto and The Crying Game, will be joined by Dougray Scott, Sophie Okonedo and Ian Hart in the four-parter Father and Son.

Produced by Left Bank Pictures, it is the first drama to be commissioned by ITV in association with RTE. Filming is currently under way on location in Ireland and Manchester.

Father and Son, which is directed by Brian Kirk, is a sophisticated thriller set against the backdrop of Ireland’s once rapid economic resurgence. It depicts the complexity of modern inner city life where crime is now a global business and where gun culture is an entrenched part of everyday life.

Hollywood actor Dougray Scott, who guest starred in Desperate Housewives and was also in Mission Impossible II with Tom Cruise, plays ex-criminal Michael O’Connor, who returns to Manchester from a quiet life in Ireland to save his teenage son from prison and to redeem his own troubled past.

ITV’s director of drama commissioning Laura Mackie said she was delighted with the project. “Father and Son is a compelling, multi-layered thriller that will engage and entertain with every plot twist and turn. The scripts are undeniably gripping and Left Bank have assembled a very impressive cast,” she said.

Jane Gogan, commissioning editor for RTE Drama, said:

“This is a ground-breaking moment in the relationship between RTE and ITV, it being our first drama co-production venture. With an exceptional gathering of talent from Ireland and the UK, this is an exciting opportunity and lays down a good marker for the future.”

Deasy wrote Prime Suspect: The Final Act and The Passion, which starred another local actor, James Nesbitt.

Belfast-born Stephen Rea has starred in numerous films, including Breakfast On Pluto and The Butcher Boy but he is perhaps best known for his role in The Crying Game, for which he was nominated for an Oscar.

He has just completed a number of other projects including Metamorphisis and The Heavy.