From keeping sheep to controlling bankers

The last time actor James Cromwell had a really big role was in 1995. Back then, he was Farmer Arthur Hoggett in Babe, an Australian film about a pig who wanted to be a dog. Now, James Cromwell is to star in a BBC drama about the collapse of Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers. The Last Days of Lehman Brothers will tells the story of the hectic efforts to save the bank. The film will be shown on BBC Two in October.

Cromwell will play US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in the drama and Corey Johnson will appear as Lehman chief executive Dick Fuld. "In the year following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Craig Warner has written a very engaging script inspired by those events," producer Ruth Caleb told the BBC. "We are also very fortunate that we have an exceptional cast to bring those events to life."

Henry Lehman emigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1844. His brothers Emanuel and Mayer soon followed. They opened a store and "Lehman Brothers" was born. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which was the fourth-largest US investment bank, filed for bankruptcy on 15 September last year after suffering losses of billions of dollars in the US mortgage market. Its collapse helped to start the world's worst recession since World War II.