Luther and The Affair star Ruth Wilson is to play her own grandmother in a new BBC1 drama about her real-life family secrets.

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The Wilsons will tell the true story of her grandmother Alison who thinks she is happily married – until her husband Alec suddenly dies and a woman turns up on her doorstep, claiming that she is the real Mrs Wilson.

Alison is determined to prove the validity of her own marriage – and Alec’s love for her – but is instead led into a world of dark and troubling secrets.

"Alec was a British spy and a best-selling novelist... but what else besides?," said the BBC in a statement. "Where did his truth end and his fiction begin? Alison will be pushed to the very brink to find out."

Inspired by the true story of Wilson's family, this three-part drama is set in 1960s London, 1940s London and India in the 1930s. It is expected to air on BBC1 next year.

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Ruth Wilson, who will star and executive produce, said: "I am so excited to bring to the small screen the extraordinary lives of my grandparents. Theirs is a profoundly moving story and the BBC is the perfect home for it."

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Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, said The Wilsons, written by Anna Symon, will tell an "extraordinary story".

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