FILM star Bill Nighy is set for a return to Inverclyde.
The Love Actually and Pirates of the Caribbean actor is heading back to Ardgowan House in Inverkip later this month to re-shoot scenes for the multi-million pound BBC Agatha Christie drama Ordeal By Innocence.

It comes after one of the original cast, Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick, was accused of rape in November last year.

The corporation subsequently ditched the three-part drama from its Christmas schedule following the allegations, which Westwick strongly denies.

He has now been replaced by English actor Christian Cooke, whose credits include American TV show The Art of More, mini-series The Promise and film Cemetery Junction.

Sections of the BBC drama will be re-filmed in Inverkip with Cooke, Nighy and the rest of the star-studded cast and crew, including producer Roopesh Parekh, pictured with Ardgowan Estate owner Sir Ludovic Shaw Stewart.

In a statement, the show makers said: “The co-producers of Ordeal By Innocence, Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited, announced that they are to re-shoot sections of the BBC One drama later this month.

“British actor Christian Cooke has been cast in the role of Mickey Argyll in Ordeal By Innocence and will join other cast members including Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, Matthew Goode, Eleanor Tomlinson, Anthony Boyle, Luke Treadaway, Morven Christie, Crystal Clarke, Ella Purnell and Alice Eve on location in Scotland.

“The transmission date of Ordeal By Innocence will be announced in due course.”

The cast and 140-strong crew spent more than six weeks at Ardgowan Estate last summer as the 18th century manor was transformed into a film set.

The Tele visited the set in August as Nighy and co continued work on the big budget drama, based on the classic Agatha Christie murder mystery novel.

Producer Parekh, who is also involved in hit series Poldark, told how he and his team spent in excess of 100 hours over the course of three months at estate scouting out the mansion and its surroundings ahead of filming.

He told the Tele it was the ‘perfect home’ both for the show and for the cast and crew, who were given the run of the house and had their own dressing rooms inside.