First look at McMafia: James Norton as Alex Godman

‘James Norton as Alex Godman and Maria Shukshina as his mother Oksana, at a family funeral. When his family’s past murderously returns to threaten them, Alex is forced to confront his values to protect those he loves.’ (BBC)

The BBC has just released the first image from the upcoming McMafia. I can’t say I’m over the moon about about it, but that’s only because I love seeing James Norton’s killer smile. If you watch him in Grantchester, you know what I mean. If you only know him from War & Peace where he played the morose Prince Andrei, not so much. I made my personal discovery of Norton in Happy Valley, where he played a chilling and psychotic killer so I’m excited to see what he does here.

From the BBC ...

As the English-raised son of Russian exiles with a mafia history, Alex has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of that criminal past, building his own legitimate business and forging a life with his girlfriend Rebecca (Juliet Rylance). What starts out as a story of survival and revenge becomes an epic tale of a man’s struggle against the lures of corruption in the modern world and in himself.

Also in the ensemble David Strathairn (The Bourne Ultimatum, Good Night, Good Luck), Faye Marsay (Love Nina, Game Of Thrones), Juliet Rylance (The Knick, Frances Ha), Aleksey Serebryakov (The Method, Leviathan) and Maria Shukshina (Yolki 3, Terrorist Ivanona) as Oksana.

The series is inspired by Misha Glenny’s best-selling book of the same name, and created by Hossein Amini (Drive) and James Watkins (The Woman In Black).

The series, filmed in London and Croatia, is a co-production of the BBC and AMC and should be coming to television sometime this year. I’ll keep ya posted.