Tahar Rahim cast in The Serpent

Tahar Rahim has been cast in \'The Serpent\'.

The Award-winning French actor - who was recently seen in Hulu series \'The Looming Tower\' - has been cast in the lead role of serial killer Charles Sobhraj in the BBC One true crime drama.

He said: "I am thrilled to play Charles Sobhraj in \'The Serpent\', a role I have dreamed of portraying since I read a book about him when I was seventeen-years-old.

"I couldn\'t be happier than to make it under the direction of Tom Shankland and writers Richard Warlow and Toby Finlay."

In the 1970s, French killer Sobhraj was suspected of up to 20 murders of young Western travellers on the well-known Hippie Trail which runs across India, Thailand, and Nepal.

His crimes included multiple acts of fraud and theft to fund his lifestyle and Sobhraj - nicknamed The Serpent - became Interpol\'s most wanted man and had three arrest warrants on three different continents, before he was finally apprehended in 1976.

The series comes from \'Poldark\' production company Mammoth Screen, and executive producer Preethi Mavahalli added: "It is an absolute honour to have Tahar Rahim, one of France\'s finest actors, join us in bringing the life and crimes of the notorious French serial killer Charles Sobhraj to screen."

The eight-part series - which will air on BBC1 in the UK and globally on Netflix - will focus on the true story of how Herman Knippenberg, a junior diplomat at the Dutch embassy in Bangkok, stumbles into Sobhraj\'s complex maze of crimes and sets about bringing him to justice.