If, like me, you doubted the chances of the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ever making it to the screen, here's a good sign: The first image has been released of Bertie Carvel and Eddie Marsan as the title characters.

Announced in 2012, the seven-part seeks to capture Susanna Clarke's acclaimed 2004 debut novel, a 782-page historical fantasy set during the Napoleonic Wars in an England where magic once existed and is about to return through the efforst of two men, "practising magician" Gilbert Norrell (Marsan) and his daring young student Jonathan Strange (Carvel). The two join forces in the war against France, only for Strange to be drawn to the most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell.

Adapted by Peter Harness (Wallander, Is Anybody There?) and directed by Toby Haynes (The Musketeers, Doctor Who), the co-production of BBC One and BBC America also stars Alice Englert (Ginger & Rosa, Beautiful Creatures), Marc Warren (The Good Wife, Hustle), Samuel West (Mr Selfridge, Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond), Charlotte Riley (Wuthering Heights, Easy Virtue), Enzo Cilenti (Prisoners Wives, Rome) and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, Stella).