BBC First has confirmed the much-anticipated landmark series War and Peace will air in Australia from Sunday, January 31st at 8.30pm.

The series began screening on BBC One in the UK on Sunday Night to critical acclaim and has been hailed as ‘breathtaking” by the UK’s Telegraph. 6.3 Million viewers watched the UK premiere.

Starring Paul Dano (Love and Mercy), Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey) and James Norton (Happy Valley), the seriesis a bold, refreshing and modern take on a thrilling, funny and heartbreaking story of love, war and family life.  The ambitious six-part adaptation by Andrew Davies brings the book to life on a truly epic scale and has been filmed on location in Russia, Latvia and Lithuania with a cast which also includes Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson, Greta Scacchi, Stephen Rea, Ken Stott and Ade Edmondson.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written, War & Peace is a timeless story of three young people set against the epic backdrop of Russia’s wars with Napoleon. At the centre of it all stands Pierre Bezukhov (Dano), a hot-headed newcomer in Russian society, brimming with ideas but hopelessly lost as he seeks meaning in his life. His sincere good nature is a comfort to his friend Andrei Bolkonsky (Norton): a cynical prince who is sick of his stifling marriage and longs for glory on the field of battle. Both their fates are bound to the beautiful, captivating and kind-hearted Natasha Rostova (James) – only a teenager when the series begins, but desperate to grow up and experience the world.

Over eight years of peace and war that will change Russia and its people forever, we meet a vast cast of unforgettable characters, from peasants and soldiers to society hostesses and even Napoleon himself. But again and again, through marriages and affairs, battlefields and ballrooms, births and deaths, we will keep returning to Pierre, Andrei and Natasha as they confront life’s great questions of love and destiny.

BBC First is available in Australia via Foxtel and Fetch TV