Jonathan Rhys Meyers will portray the young Henry VIII in The Tudors, a 10-episode TV series set to be shot in Ireland over the summer.

Sam Neill will play Cardinal Wolsey, the king's most important minister until he failed to secure for Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Jeremy Northam and Henry Cavill are also in the cast. The screenwriter is Michael Hirst, whose credits include the William Trevor adaptation, Fools of Fortune, which was directed by Pat O'Connor, and Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I.