Close to the Enemy – Stephen Poliakoff delivers another action-packed drama in post-war Britain

Before you start rolling your eyes at the prospect of another Second World War drama, writer Stephen Poliakoff returns with a seven-part period drama for BBC2 in bomb-damaged London – despite most scenes being filmed in Liverpool.

The first episode sees Lotte and her father Dieter Koehler (August Diehl) – a recently captured German scientist – arrive in England post WW2.

Intelligence officer Callum Ferguson (Jim Sturgess) – who thinks his war duties are over – is assigned with the final task of persuading Koehler into offering a helping hand to the RAF to develop the jet engine that is crucial to national security.

The two men eventually develop a friendship; but everything is not as it seems, as we'll find out as the drama-filled, action-packed series unravels over the next few weeks. Joining them in the cast are Freddie Highmore and Charlotte Riley from Peaky Blinders – who has just been cast to play Kate Middleton in the BBC one-off feature length drama, King Charles III.

Viewers may detect Poliakoff's magic touch with his love of once glamorous but now near-derelict faded buildings as Ferguson moves Koehler and his daughter into a cavernous hotel where mysterious prostitutes saunter through the hallways at night.

Sturgess said of the new series: "Stephen Poliakoff's screenplays are so different from anyone else's. It felt as if you were reading a novel – I was really drawn into the world that he creates so articulately."

Close to the Enemy begins on Thursday (10 November) at 9pm on BBC2.