Just hours after Colin Morgan celebrated picking up the best drama performance gong at the National Televison Awards, the BBC has released the first shot of the former Merlin star in a new role, in period drama Quirke.

Morgan will make a guest appearance as a character named Jimmy Minor in Elegy for April, the final epsiode of the three-part 1950s-set series, which stars Gabriel Byrne (left) as the eponymous Dublin morgue pathologist who investigates cases  of sudden death.

Quirke is currently filming on location in the Irish capital and follows the same three-times-90-minute format as BBC1's Sherlock.