The BBC is to film a feature-length TV drama about the life controversial British pianist Joyce Hatto in Dublin and Wicklow.
Loving Miss Hatto will be worth an estimated €2 million to the sector and will employ 100 people directly and 200 indirectly when filming starts in mid-April.
This latest project brings the number of BBC dramas filming in Ireland this year to three, following the announcement earlier this month that Ripper Street, an eight-part drama on the hunt for Jack the Ripper, and the second series of police comedy Vexed are also to be filmed here.
The three projects bring British TV drama spending in the Irish economy to €13 million for the first quarter of the year.
Hatto became famous late in life when her husband, the record producer William Barrington-Coupe, released a series of commercial recordings made by other pianists in her name.
The reclusive pianist, who died from cancer in 2006, was apparently unaware of the deception perpetrated in her name at the time of the death.
The script for the 90-minute drama, which is to be shot over four weeks at locations in Dublin and Wicklow, was written by British comedian Victoria Wood.
British stage and screen star Francesca Annis has been cast alongside British-American actor Alfred Molina in the lead roles.
Award-winning Irish director Aisling Walsh, whose credits include Song For a Raggy Boy and Trial & Retribution, will direct the film.
It is being jointly produced by British company Left Bank Films, makers of The Queen with Helen Mirren and The Damned United with Michael Sheen, and Bray-based Octagon Films, the company behind The Tudors and Raw.
The project is also being part-financed by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
Announcing the project today, Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan said: "The film and television continues to deliver employment, creating opportunities for Irish creative talent."
Octagon producer James Flynn said he was delighted that a company of the calibre of Left Bank had decided to return to Ireland after its successful experience here with the 2009 crime thriller Father and Son.
