Meet The New Incarnations Of The Musketeers And Their Friends And Foes [Pictures]

The world's favourite swashbuckling quartet are back in a stunning new adventure series adapted by BBC One from Alexandre Dumas' 'The Three Musketeers' and starring an exceptional ensemble cast.

The new show is named merely 'The Musketeers' and, although is based on the main framework of the 1844 novel, is in fact a series of newly created escapades, occasionally inspired by the events of the original story. Creator Adrian Hodges wanted to go for something a little different from the last few decades of popular movie adaptions, which include Richard Lester's 1973 version starring Michael York and Charlton Heston, the 1993 Disney film with Chris O'Donnell and Tim Curry, and who could forget the animated adventure 'Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds'?

Rather than going with the popular notion of putting old stories into modern settings, such as Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's detective series 'Sherlock' and Fox's supernatural crime drama 'Sleepy Hollow', Hodges wanted to keep it as original as possible though still quietly raising contemporary issues. 'I'm not sure the concept could really make sense outside of its original setting', he says. 'So right from the start I decided we had to keep the framework everyone knows but then bring a certain modern attitude to it.'

The cast of The Musketeers BBC drama features Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino and Peter Capaldi and, let's face it, they've got a lot to live up to if previous adaptations are anything to go by. However, the new musketeers have had plenty of time to bond as brothers and even enjoyed a week of bootcamp at a Prague castle involving non-stop horse-riding, sword-fighting and general swashbuckling to prepare for filming. First glances suggest they could very well be a winning combination and offer us our new favourite version of the Dumas story.

Next page: Luke Pasqualino is D'Artagnan Luke Pasqualino is D'Artagnan: Luke is best known for playing laidback Freddie McClair in the third and fourth series of Channel 4 teen drama 'Skins', but now he's set to get into plenty of trouble with a new group of pals in 'The Musketeers'. D'Artagnan is the only member of the gang who isn't originally a musketeer, though the fact that the show's title does not mention 'three' suggests that D'Artagnan could receive his honour early on. He is what Luke describes as 'impulsive' and a 'desperate romantic', though it wasn't just his charisma that attracted him to the show. 'It was the friendship and loyalty - I'm from an Italian background so those ideals are written in stone', he told the BBC. 'I tried to push that out as much as possible.'

Next page: Howard Charles is Porthos Howard Charles is Porthos: Howard is the least experienced actor of the gang, having only appeared in the independent Netherlands movie '&Me', TV fantasy movie 'Black Forest' and an episode of 'Switch', but he seems pretty switched on about his new major role as the exceedingly passionate but deeply troubled warrior Porthos. He talks about the heavy influence Alexandre Dumas' father, a General in the French army, had on creating his Porthos character. 'There weren't many mixed-race people around in uniform, so of course I was really attracted to that element', he says, and revealed that he prepared for role by reading 'The Black Count' by Tom Reiss, which was about the life of Alexandre Dumas Senior.

Next page: Santiago Cabrera is Aramis Santiago Cabrera is Aramis: Santiago Cabrera is already well established in BBC television after his Lancelot role in the hugely popular 'Merlin'. He now faces a similar sword-wielding, honourable hero in the form of Aramis - a 'daredevil' who is highly religious and raised to be a priest. Santiago thinks Aramis gets into the most trouble but agrees that the whole gang has a penchant for peril. 'It was a time in France where they knew it was a lifestyle that was about to end, so they are living life to the full', he says, but replicating that on set brought up many challenges; most memorably, the heat: 'We have had some days of 35 or 36 degrees fighting in the leather costumes - running up and down and doing these pretty elaborate 45-second to one-and-a-half-minute fights, which require really intense bursts of energy.'

Next page: Tom Burke is Athos Tom Burke is Athos: With the musketeers 'having often seen him smile, but had never heard him laugh', Tom Burke also faced a challenge in portraying the highly guarded Athos, though he admits that the hardest thing to get his head around was playing a lead character with consistency. Tom recently appeared in Ralph Fiennes' Oscar nominated 'The Invisible Woman' and also had a role as Ryan Gosling's deceased brother in 'Only God Forgives', but 'The Musketeers' is his most challenging to date. 'The biggest challenge is hanging on to your through line but trying to make it fresh and trying to not repeat yourself', he explains.

Next page: Peter Capaldi is Cardinal Richelieu Peter Capaldi is Cardinal Richelieu: Though all set to save the universe as the Doctor in the upcoming eight series of 'Doctor Who', Peter Capaldi recently told What's On TV that, in fact, he still loves to play the bad guy. 'I love walking around in black leather outfits and generally playing a nasty piece of work', he told the TV guide.

'I get to poison and torture people and have them killed... what more could you ask for?' Cardinal Richelieu certainly is evil, though often just as deceived as he is deceitful, but playing him wasn't always a pain-free experience. 'I myself suffered a nasty dislocated thumb, but embarrassingly not from swinging a sword around', Peter revealed. 'Instead, my injury came from a domestic the cardinal was having with Milady, Maimie McCoy. I threw her against the wall not realising I'd caught my thumb in her large frock. I felt a jab of pain. And when the director said "cut" I looked down and saw my thumb was on the wrong way round. Nasty. The lesson clearly was, never get into a fight with Maimie McCoy.'

Next page: Meet the rest of the cast Other cast members: Maimie's character Milady is another rather unsavoury character; beautiful, but essentially a brutal spy, not to mention a man-eater much like her character in the BBC Three series 'Personal Affairs'. And while she sees her character as 'very complex and deeply flawed' it's clear we'll be seeing a lot of trouble from her.

We also have newcomer (ish) Alexandra Dowling in her first recurring TV role as Queen Anne; another character who could be described as complex as, while she is not a bad person, she continues to entertain a lover behind the back of her distinctly unromantic husband Louis XIII ('The Hobbit''s Ryan Gage). Louis XIII frustrates her with his frequent weakness and naivety, but Ryan auditioned for the role based on his contradictory persona being 'able to go from being emotional to being humorous to everything in between'.

Anne's associate Constance Bonacieux takes after her boss and also gets embroiled in extra-marital romance - with D'Artagnon. Although adventure is ripe for the actress, Tamla Kari; who is recently recognised for playing Danielle in ITV comedy 'The Job Lot'; wouldn't like to have lived in that period for real. 'Wearing a corset everyday? No ta. Also everyone would have stunk!' She says.

'The Full Monty' star Hugo Speer is the Musketeer commander Captain Treville; a loyal veteran of heroism who has to control the maverick swashbucklers. Hugo explains: 'Treville's motto is loyalty and strength - that's how he lives his life and that's how he is in regard to the king as well.'