Cast Announced for CBC/ITV Drama ‘Shoot the Messenger’

New CBC/ITV drama Shoot the Messenger revealed its cast today as production gets underway in Toronto, and there is more than one familiar face to get excited about.

Elyse Levesque (Stargate Universe), Lucas Bryant (Haven), Alex Kingston (Doctor Who), and Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue) are set to star.

An eight-episode, hour-long political thriller, Shoot the Messenger “centres on the complex relationships between crime reporters and the police.”

Here’s some more about the series from the official press release:

Shoot the Messenger follows Daisy Channing (Levesque), a sharp and ambitious j-school grad trying to balance a messy personal life while working at a big city newspaper. Things begin to go sideways for Daisy when she witnesses a murder she thinks is gang related, only to find herself slowly drawn into an interconnected web of criminal activity that reaches into the corridors of corporate and political power.

As Daisy, her editor Mary Fowler (Kingston), co-worker Simon Olendski (Bryant), and lead homicide detective Frank Lutz (Bent) pull at the threads of a cover up that gets more complicated the more they unravel, Shoot the Messenger also explores the ambiguous line between the private and the personal in the digital age.

The impressive cast also includes Hannah Anderson, Ari Cohen, Edie Inksetter, Al Sapienza, and Nicholas Campbell, and will feature special appearances by The Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, The Toronto Raptor’s Jamaal Magloire, and actor/NBA superstar Rick Fox.

Shoot the Messenger is produced by Jennifer Holness and Victoria Woods for Hungry Eyes Film & Television, in association with CBC Television and ITV. Holness and Sudz Sutherland share co-creator credits and both write on the show. Sutherland is also lead director.

Sutherland remarked on the casting of Levesque in the lead role: “We’re thrilled with the young, exciting cast that have boarded the show. Elyse Levesque has demonstrated incredible charisma in her past projects – she’s like a magnet on camera. Shoot the Messenger audiences are going to be introduced to her impressive dramatic range and vulnerability that really connects to the viewer – she also brings a sharp intelligence which was absolutely required for this material.”

Shoot the Messenger is set for a Summer 2016 premiere.