EXCLUSIVE: BAFTA-winner Steve Pemberton is playing villainous media mogul Rupert Murdoch in The Hack, ITV and Stan‘s drama series about the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Murdoch’s News of the World.
Deadline brings you the news just a week after we told you Guy Pearce was circling a role playing Murdoch in Danny Boyle feature Ink.
Pemberton, best known for Inside No. 9, The League of Gentlemen and Killing Eve, is pictured as Murdoch above in The Hack appearing in the public Leveson Inquiry hearing alongside son James Murdoch, played by Jordan Renzo. Murdoch gave evidence with his son during the inquiry about phone-hacking claims at the now-defunct News of the World. James Murdoch, the then chairman of Murdoch’s News International, was notoriously labeled a “mafia boss” by lawmaker Tom Watson during the hearing.
More cast joining the likes of David Tennant, Robert Carlyle and Toby Jones in The Hack include Dougray Scott, who will play former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Eve Myles, who is TV presenter Jacqui Hames, one of the victims of phone hacking. A trailer, which will air on ITV in about an hour, can be viewed below along with some more first-look pics.
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Pemberton’s name has been on cast lists for The Hack for months but this is the first time he has been revealed playing Murdoch. He is one of a number of stars to take on the famed 94-year-old Australian mogul down the years including Simon McBurney in Showtime’s The Loudest Voice and Malcolm McDowell in Bombshell, both of which told the story of allegations made against the late Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Succession‘s Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, is also widely understood to be in part based on Murdoch. In Ink, Pearce, who is not yet confirmed, could play Murdoch in a story about his purchase of The Sun newspaper, with Jack O’Connell in line to play The Sun editor Larry Lamb. The feature is adapted from the James Graham play of the same name.
From the storied creative trio of multi-BAFTA Award winner Jack Thorne, director Lewis Arnold (Sherwood) and producer Patrick Spence (Mr Bates vs the Post Office), The Hack tells the story of how investigative reporter Nick Davies (Tennant) uncovered phone hacking at the News of the World more than a decade ago. Deadline first revealed the project several months back.
The Hack also stars Rose Leslie, Adrian Lester, Katherine Kelly, Kevin Doyle, Neil Maskell, Lara Pulver, Lee Ingleby, Pip Torrens, Lisa McGrillis, Sean Pertwee, Robert Bathurst, Richard Pepple, Nadia Albina, Phil Davis, Ace Bhatti, Charlie Brooks and Paul Kaye.
ITV Studios is producing with Anonymous, United Agents and Casarotto Ramsay-backed AC Chapter One, with the pair re-teaming following the smash hit success of 2024’s Mr Bates, the ITV drama that broke viewing records and generated headlines for weeks. Thorne’s One Shoe Films is also a co-producer. Between them, Thorne, Arnold and Spence have won eight BAFTAs.
