Ex-convict role for ER's Kingston

Kingston (r) played Professor River Song in a Doctor Who two-parter

Former ER actress Alex Kingston is to appear in Hope Springs, an eight-part BBC drama about four female ex-convicts hiding out in a small Scottish village.

The 45-year-old, recently seen in BBC One's Doctor Who, will play the leader of a gang whose plans to start a new life in Barbados go awry.

One Foot in the Grave veteran Annette Crosbie plays a local woman who comes into contact with the fugitive quartet.

Kingston said she was attracted by the show's "good, strong female roles".

Christine Bottomley, from award-winning drama The Street, plays one of her fellow ex-cons.

'Thrilled'

Produced by Shed Productions, makers of Bad Girls, Hope Springs will be shot on location in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

Interiors will be filmed at BBC Scotland's recently opened drama studios in Dumbarton.

Kingston was recently seen in a two-part edition of Doctor Who, in which she played a space traveller who claimed to know the Time Lord in the future.

"We're thrilled to have such major screen talent fronting Hope Springs," said executive producer Brian Park.

The series is scheduled to transmit on BBC One in 2009.