Happy Valley/Last Tango in Halifax actress Sarah Lancashire is to play US cooking icon Julia Child in a new HBO TV series.

Lancashire will star alongside Tom Hollander, who will play Julia’s husband Paul, Bebe Neuwirth and Isabella Rossellini in the pilot for the series.

The series is inspired by Julia Child’s extraordinary life and her show The French Chef, which had a huge following on American TV.

Through Julia and her singular can-do spirit, it explores an evolving time in American history – the emergence of a new social institution called public television, feminism and the women’s movement, the nature of celebrity, and America’s cultural growth.

At its heart, the show is described as a portrait of a marriage with an evolving and complicated power dynamic.