Old faces land new roles in BBC's drama line-up

THE Wire actor Idris Elba, ER heart-throb Goran Visnjic and former Doctor Who stars Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston are among the BBC's new drama line-up.

Elba will star in police drama Luther, in which the murderer's identity is known from the start. The winter-spring drama season also sees Piper star in Kay Mellor's A Passionate Woman and Eccleston play John Lennon, pictured right.

BBC2 will run a season dedicated to the 1980s, with Martin Amis's novel Money brought to TV screens, starring Hot Fuzz actor Nick Frost.

It will also feature a drama about life in a Welsh village, set against the backdrop of the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.