Entertainment

Shoot the Messenger casts Elyse Levesque, Alex Kingston, Lyriq Bent

Alex Kingston, Lyriq Bent, Elyse Levesque and Lucas Bryant will play central roles in the forthcoming CBC-TV political thriller Shoot the Messenger.

Political thriller to air on CBC-TV and ITV

Elyse Levesque stars in Shoot the Messenger as Daisy Channing, a sharp and ambitious j-school grad trying to balance a messy personal life while working at a big city newspaper. (CBC)

Alex Kingston, Lyriq Bent, Elyse Levesque and Lucas Bryant will play central roles in the forthcoming CBC-TV political thriller Shoot the Messenger.

The series, which will air on CBC-TV and ITV, follows an ambitious young newspaper journalist (Levesque) who witnesses a murder and is drawn into a dangerous web of criminal activity that stretches into the corporate and political realms.

The eight-episode, hour-long drama "is going to be a fast paced, atmospheric drama that is driven by contemporary urban issues in media, policing, and politics," co-creator Jennifer Holness said in a statement.

Lyriq Bent stars in the upcoming political thriller series Shoot the Messenger as detective Frank Lutz. (CBC)

Shoot the Messenger is the latest production for Holness and Sudz Sutherland, the married filmmakers behind the thought-provoking deportation film Home Again and crime miniseries Guns.

The wider cast includes Nicholas Campbell, Hannah Anderson, Ari Cohen, Edie Inksetter and Al Sapienza. Singer-songwriter Ed Robertson, former NBA star Rick Fox and current Toronto Raptors player Jamaal Magloire are also slated to make guest appearances.

Shoot the Messenger is scheduled to air in summer 2016 on CBC-TV.