Tom Burke, the War and Peace hearthrob, has been cast as Cormoran Strike in the BBC's adaptation of JK Rowling's gritty crime novels.

Burke, who played the dashing Dolokhov in the Tolstoy period drama, is to play damaged war veteran Strike in a three-part “event drama” based on Rowling’s crime novels.

The books, which were written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, have been critically acclaimed for their dark content, with gruesome themes the author admitted gave her nightmares.