The X-Files star Gillian Anderson has been offered £500,000 to star in a BBC One adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House.

Anderson will play the role of Honoria Dedlock in the series, which begins filming in February next year.

Andrew Davies, who is adapting the novel for television, has revealed that the show will air twice a week, in a soap style, for a total of 20 episodes.

"It'll enable us to give a much fuller rendering of the book than we're normally able to in a classic adaptation," he told The Mirror.

A BBC insider added, "We are signing up a huge ensemble cast for the series - it's going to be very high quality."