EXCLUSIVE: Matt Charman’s Amazon crime thriller Dirty has found its latest lead.

Samantha Morton, who stars in Chris Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey, has been cast alongside Phoebe Dynevor in Dirty.

The series follows trainee Detective Eva Bennett, played by Dynevor, who returns to Manchester and joins a new homicide investigation run by her fearsome estranged mother – the legendary Detective Chief Inspector Lois Mercer, played by Morton.

As they navigate their complicated relationship and long-buried truths resurface, Eva starts to uncover Lois’ crimes, forcing an impossible choice between justice and blood.

Production is set to start in the UK later this year.

Morton is known for starring in movies such as Minority Report and Morvern Callar. She was Oscar nominated for her roles in Sweet and Lowdown and In America and won a Golden Globe for Longford. Recent TV credits include AMC’s The Walking Dead, Starz’s The Serpent Queen and Paramount+’s The Burning Girls, while recent film credits include Ronan Day-Lewiw’s Anemone and she is starring in Ruben Ostlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down.

Dirty is produced by Charman’s Binocular Productions in association with Amazon MGM Studios. Charman writes and Foz Allan exec produces.

Charman wrote the Steven Spielberg-directed and Tom Hanks-starring spy thriller Bridge of Spies. He wrote and served as showrunner for Netflix’s Treason, created and ran Netflix political thriller Hostage, which starred Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy, and created, wrote and produced Prisoner for Sky.

“I love the power and the volatility of these two women,” said Charman. “There are no limits on what either of them is capable of, which makes the potential of every scene explosive.”

The series is the second British original to come from Nicole Clemens, the former Paramount exec who signed on as Vice President of International Originals Amazon MGM Studios last year.

Morton is represented by Conway van Gelder Grant, UTA, Omni Artists, The Initiative Group, and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman. Charman is repped by CAA, Untitled and Independent in the UK.