BBC has cast Night Manager star Hayley Squires and new Hercule Poirot actor Edward Bluemel in its upcoming show, Shy & Lola, as a first look at the new series is unveiled.
The darkly comic story follows Shy (Hayley Squires) a cleaner scraping by and dreaming of a new life in Portugal, and Lola, played by Bel Powley, an ex-model-turned-grifter who arrives in town with trouble at her heels.
The two very different women are forced to become allies when a murder entangles them in the criminal underworld operating in Shy’s small coastal town in the North of England.
Beginning as exploited novices, the unlikely duo turn out to have a talent for crime. As they build an operation that threatens to blow the local bad guys out of the water, opposing futures beckon – using their earnings to fund a fresh start, or to become the new bosses in town.
The new series is based on the French television drama Cheyenne and Lola which ran for one season in 2020.
Alongside the Night Manager, Hayley Squires, who is a two-time BAFTA nominee, is known for Call the Midwife, I, Daniel Blake, and Adult Material.
Bel Powley’s acting debut was the CBBC action television series M.I. High when she was a teenager. More recently, she has appeared in Benidorm, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Moominvalley, The Morning Show, and Savage House. She is married to fellow British actor Douglas Booth.
Squires and Powley have previously worked together over 10 years ago on the romantic comedy-drama film A Royal Night Out.
Alongside Squires, Powley and Bluemel, the cast of the BBC adaption of Shy & Lola also includes Amber Grappy (One Day, The Baby), Matthew McNulty (Deadwater Fell, Domina), Elizabeth Berrington (Tip Toe, Frauds), Jordan Bolger (The Witness, This Town) Thomas Turgoose (Mickey 17, This is England), Joseph Ayre (Hijack, Urchin) and Melanie-Joyce Bermudez, who is making her on-screen debut.
The six-part series was penned by alumni BBC writer Amanda Coe and helmed by accomplished director Sam Donovan whose works include the hit series Severance and Widows Bay.
Shy & Lola will be coming BBC One and BBC iPlayer next year.
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