Peter Capaldi signs up for BBC Nativity

Peter Capaldi has signed up to join a new Nativity adaptation.

The actor is best known for his role as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It, but The Mirror reports that he has now signed up to play Balthazar, one of the Wise Men.

Cranford star Andrew Buchan will take on the role of Joseph, while Tatiana Maslany will play Mary.

The BBC programme is being scripted by Life On Mars writer Tony Jordan.

He said: "The challenge for me was to retell a story that has been told countless times before, a story that everyone knows intimately, yet to do so in a way that will surprise and move you, to see parts of the story you'd never seen before."

Meanwhile, controller of BBC Drama Commissioning Ben Stephenson added: "We are proud to bring audiences this beautiful story retold for Christmas 2010 by a master storyteller. We hope our version of the Nativity will give audiences all the wonder, magic and inspiration of the original while also telling a less familiar tale - that of ordinary people going about their lives with no sense of the enormous importance their story would hold for centuries to come."

The show will be broadcast over four nights on BBC One at Christmas.