A HISTORIC country house in Worcestershire is to feature as the beautiful backdrop to a BBC period drama.

Witley Court and Gardens near Great Witley provides a stunning setting to the BBC Two flagship period drama Close To the Enemy, directed by award-winning writer and director Stephen Poliakoff which aired in November.

The episode which features English Heritage's Witley Court, north west of Worcester, is due to be shown this Thursday (December 15) at 9pm on BBC Two.

Filming took place in late April and early May 2015 for the drama, produced by Little Island Productions in association with Endor Productions.

Witley Court Site Manager, Jenny Hatton said: “We thoroughly enjoyed having the crew from BBC Two’s Close to the Enemy filming at Witley Court and Gardens last year, and it’s been a real delight to see how well they have captured Witley’s beauty in the finished series.”

Witley Court, known for its opulent nineteenth century interiors, became one of the country’s most spectacular ruins following a a devastating fire in 1937.

The seven part BBC series is mainly set in a bomb-damaged London hotel in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Jim Sturgess (One Day, London Fields) heads a cast including Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel, The Journey), Charlotte Riley (Peaky Blinders, In the Heart of the Sea), Phoebe Fox (NW, The Hollow Crown), August Diehl (Inglourious Basterds, Le jeune Karl Marx), Robert Glenister (Paranoid, Hustle), Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones, Pandemic), Charity Wakefield (Wolf Hall, The Halcyon), the legendary Angela Bassett (American Horror Story, London has Fallen), Lindsay Duncan (Birdman, Alice in Wonderland), and Alfred Molina (Love is Strange, Show Me a Hero)

Close To The Enemy follows intelligence officer Captain Callum Ferguson (Sturgess), whose last task for the Army is to ensure that a captured German scientist, Dieter (Diehl), starts working for the British RAF on urgently developing the jet engine.

With the background of the emerging Cold War, it is clear to all that it's crucial for British national security that cutting edge technology is made available to the armed forces as quickly as possible.

Callum uses unorthodox methods in his attempt to convince Dieter to work with the British and eventually a friendship develops between the two men, but soon tensions arise as all is not as it seems.