''Red Election'' is an international spy drama television series. The story follows a British intelligence agent (

Lydia Leonard Lydia Leonard (born 5 December 1981) is a British stage, film and television actress, best known for her roles in the television series ''Bring Up the Bodies'', ''Ten Percent (TV series), Ten Percent'' and ''The Crown (TV series), The Crown''. ...

) and a Danish secret service agent (Victoria Carmen Sonne) who team up to stop a Russian terrorist attack in Britain. The 10-part series premiered as a

Viaplay Viaplay is a streaming service owned by Viaplay Group which is based in Stockholm. History Originally owned by Modern Times Group, it was launched in May 2007 as Viasat On Demand. It was rebranded as Viaplay in 2011. Viaplay released its first ...

Original on 3 October 2021.

Cast

Main

as Beatrice Ogilvy,

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...

agent *Victoria Carmen Sonne as Katrine Poulson, DSIS agent *

Stephen Dillane Stephen John Dillane (; born 27 March 1957) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Leonard Woolf in the 2002 film '' The Hours'', Stannis Baratheon in ''Game of Thrones'', and Thomas Jefferson in the 2008 HBO miniseries ''John Ada ...

as William Ogilvy, MI5 director and Beatrice's father *

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Kobna Kuttah Holdbrook-Smith (born 23 August 1977) is a Ghanaian-British actor known for his film, television, theatre and voice work. Early life Holdbrook-Smith was born in Accra, Ghana. He grew up in Frimley, Surrey, England, where he li ...

as Levi Nichols, MI5 agent *

Lorraine Burroughs Lorraine Burroughs (born 22 January 1981) is a British actress of stage and screen. She was born in Birmingham and attended Bishop Challoner RC School there. She later trained at RADA. Burroughs is best known for her role in the play ''The Mounta ...

as Etta Cornwell *

Aidan McArdle Aidan McArdle (born 1970) is an Irish actor. Early life McArdle was born in Dublin. He studied for an Arts degree at University College Dublin before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England. Career First r ...

as Zak *Clinton Liberty as Marcus *

Goran Kostić Goran Kostić ( sr-cyrl, Горан Костић, born 18 November 1971) is a Serbian actor based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared in supporting roles in a number of Hollywood films. Early life Kostić was born on 18 November 1971 to an e ...

as Oleg Adamov *Ian Kenny as Declan *

James D'Arcy James D'Arcy (born Simon Richard D'Arcy; 24 August 1975) is an English actor and film director. He is known for his portrayals of Howard Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series '' Agent Carter'' and the ...

as Adam Cornwell,

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

*Rori Hawthorn as Holly *

Amy Shiels thumb Amy Shiels (born 21 February 1991) is an Irish film and television actress who has appeared in the films '' Veronica Guerin'', '' Slaughter'', ''Twin Peaks'', and as Lunafreya Nox Fleuret in ''Final Fantasy XV''. Early life and family S ...

as Nikki Foster-Lyons *

Pavel Kříž Pavel Kříž (born 18 April 1961 in Brno) is a Czechs, Czech actor and psychotherapist. In December 2010 Kříž won the StarDance (Czech season 4), fourth season of StarDance (Czech TV series), StarDance with his professional partner Alice St ...

as Gavel Surkov *Sophie Jo Wasson as Isla Robson *

Andy Kellegher Andy Kellegher is an Irish actor. Career He is best known for his role as Polliver in HBO's ''Game of Thrones'' and for his portrayal of Brendan "Beady" Burke in the Irish TV series '' Red Rock'' as a main cast member. He has appeared in numero ...

as Shaun Graham *Tadhg Murphy as Nigel Braynor *

Owen Roe Owen Roe O'Neill (Irish: ''Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill;'' – 1649) was a Gaelic Irish soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster. O'Neill left Ireland at a young age and spent most of his life as a mercenary in the Spanish A ...

Recurring

Stephen Hogan Stephen Hogan is an Irish actor and audiobook narrator. Biography Hogan was born in August 1965 and grew up in Darty, Dublin, Ireland. Hogan says he studied architecture at Edinburgh University but upon graduating did not see himself in tha ...

as Alaric Henderson, MI5 agent *Niels Justesen as Torben Jensen *Fiach Kunz as Kelvin Cruickshanks

Production

Development

The drama was created by William Diskay, Jonas Fors, with Ola Norén, Roland Ulvselius, and lead writer Stephen Brady. Paul Coates and Rachel Smith joined Stephen Brady on the writing team. Jill Robertson served as lead director and executive producer of the series. Paul Murphy and Declan Recks were also directors on the series. Executive producing were Moreyba Bidessie of

A+E Networks A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

. Veronika Eriksson and Christian Alveborg of Mopar Studios would produce. It is part of Mobpar's English-language slate.

Casting

In May 2021,

Nordic Entertainment Group Viaplay Group AB, formerly known as Nordic Entertainment Group AB (NENT Group), is a Swedish media and entertainment company headquartered in Stockholm. The company operates the namesake video streaming services Viaplay and Viafree, advertising ...

announced that

, and Victoria Carmen Sonne had been cast in the drama with Sonne and Leonard as the lead spy duo.

Filming

The series and cast announcements dropped just as production wrapped. It had originally begun in 2020, but was shut down after only two weeks due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Filming was able to resume after six months. Principal photography took place in Ireland.

Release

A trailer was released on 23 September 2021. The 10-part series premiered on NENT Group's streaming platform

in Nordic countries.

International are responsible for international distribution. The series premiered on

Ovation The ovation ( la, ovatio from ''ovare'': to rejoice) was a form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of nations or states; when an enemy was considered basely inferior (e.g., slaves, p ...

TV in the United States starting August 6, 2022 as part of the "Mystery Alley" crime drama mystery-themed Saturday night block. The series premiered on public television channel

SBS Television The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World ...

in Australia on 28 October 2021. The series was added to the Disney plus line up in October 2022 in UK and Ireland.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 13696808 2021 Swedish television series debuts English-language television shows Espionage television series Television shows filmed in the Republic of Ireland Terrorism in television Swedish spy television series