Josh Radnor is returning to the small screen after the How I Met Your Mother finale to join a much more serious project. He will co-star with Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Mercy Street, a six-part Civil War-set series about nurses on opposite sides of the war.
The lead characters are New England abolitionist Mary Phinney (Winstead) and Confederate supporter Emma Green (newcomer Hannah James). The Green family home has been turned into a Union Army hospital. It is based on the memoirs and letters written by doctors who worked at the real Mansion House Hospital.
Radnor stars as Jedidiah Foster, a contract surgeons who grew up in a privileged Maryland household.
The rest of the cast includes Cary Gole, Peter Gerety, Norbert Leo Butz, McKinley Belcher III, Shalita Grant and AnnaSophia Robb. 24’s Cherry Jones will be a guest star.
Mercy Street is executive produced by Scott Free’s Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker, Lisa Q. Wolfinger and David Zabel. Scott Free co-produced with Sawbone Films. It will be directed by Roxann Dawson, who has helmed episodes of Lost, Agents of SHIELD and Heroes; and Jeremy Webb, who has worked on episodes of Turn and Masters of Sex. Webb also won an Emmy for directing an episode of Downton Abbey.
Mercy Street will be a part of PBS’ winter 2016 Masterpiece line-up.
image courtesy of Walter McBride/INFphoto.com