Just a Mo as Walters signs up for lead in C4 drama

JULIE WALTERS is to play Mo Mowlam in a new one-off drama for Channel 4.

The actress, who has been nominated for two Oscars in her career, will play the former Northern Ireland secretary in Mo, written by Bafta-winning dramatist Neil McKay.

Walters, 59, who recently starred in box office hit Mamma Mia!, starts filming in the summer for the drama, set to be aired early next year.

McKay, who won his Bafta for See No Evil: The Moors Murders, portrays Mowlam's rise to prominence in Tony Blair's government and the role she played in clinching the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998. She died in 2005, aged 55.

The film will also depict her relationship with her husband, City banker Jon Norton - who died last month - and is based on interviews with Mowlam's family, close colleagues and key players in the Northern Ireland peace process such as Martin McGuinness and David Trimble.

Channel 4's head of drama Liza Marshall said today: "Mo Mowlam is one of the most inspiring figures of our recent political past and I can't think of an actress who could more powerfully capture her energy, wit and ultimately the tragedy of her situation than Julie Walters."

Channel 4, riding high on the success of ambitious dramas such as Red Riding and the triple Royal Television Society award winner The Devil's Whore, also unveiled a new season of programmes today.

It includes a campaign putting children in care under the spotlight. The strand's main programme, Adopt Me, will follow four households of would-be adopters as they take part in a pioneering project to try to find homes for the children no one else wants. Other shows connected to the campaign will include The Unloved, a one-off drama about a young girl growing up in a children's home, directed by Oscar-nominated actress Samantha Morton.

Britain's Forgotten Children will look at why a quarter of the 4,000 children up for adoption each year can't find a family.

Having screened the first televised human autopsy in 2002, Channel 4 will court controversy again by showing a series of live animal autopsies, featuring an elephant, a giraffe, a crocodile and a whale.

Biologist Richard Dawkins will explain what the animals' different anatomies reveal about evolution.

Other highlights of the season will include Endgame, a feature-length political thriller starring William Hurt about secret talks between Afrikaners and ANC exiles that took place in the late Eighties in an English country house.

David Starkey's Henry VIII: The Mind Of A Tyrant, will look at one of Britain's most flamboyant monarchs and Rupert Everett In Search Of Lord Byron will see the actor take a close look at the notorious life of the romantic poet.

Gordon Ramsay is set for a gastronomic tour of India in Gordon's Great Escape and Big Brother returns for its 10th series.

OUTSPOKEN AND POPULAR MINISTER

MO MOWLAM was one of Labour's best-loved and most outspoken ministers.

Tony Blair made her Northern Ireland Secretary in 1997 and she quickly made a name for herself as a down-to-earth but brutally honest politician.

She won acclaim for her perseverance in working towards the Good Friday peace agreement.

Her achievements were all the more remarkable because she was recovering from treatment for a brain tumour. She kept this secret until treatment caused her hair to fall out and contributed to her gaining weight.

In 1998 she defied advisers and visited loyalist inmates at Maze Prison when it became clear the peace process needed their backing.

She was known for a disregard of formality, often putting her feet up and chewing gum in meetings.

In discussions leading up to the Good Friday agreement, Ms Mowlam relieved tension by removing her wig.

Her success in Northern Ireland should have led to a more high profile position, but she lost her job to Peter Mandelson in 1999.

She was moved to the Cabinet Office but retired in 2001, becoming a familiar face on chat shows and documentaries. She died on 19 August 2005 in a hospice.