HE is best known for playing the foul-mouthed loser Eddie who lives on the dole in a run-down flat in Shepherd’s Bush in the TV slapstick comedy Bottom.

But Bradford-born actor Ade Edmondson’s latest role couldn’t be further apart from the jobless no-hoper, as he is set to star in a BBC adaptation of the Russian classic War And Peace.

The 57-year-old will star alongside Lily James, best known as Downton Abbey’s Lady Rose, and Paul Dano from There Will Be Blood, in the remake of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, adapted by Andrew Davies. Mr Edmondson will play Count Rostov, who accumulates debts through extravagant living, squandering the inheritance of his children.