The Queen star Helen Mirren has signed up to play another monarch – Catherine the Great.

The Oscar-winning actor came up with the idea for the Sky and HBO drama, saying she had always wanted to play the Russian empress and was attracted to the idea of playing such a powerful woman.

A portrait of Catherine the Great. Photograph: Alamy

She said: “I am very excited by the possibility of embodying a woman from history who grabbed and then wielded great power. She rewrote the rules of governance by a woman, and succeeded to the extent of having the word ‘Great’ attached to her name.”

The four-part drama, which will begin filming later this year, “delves into the politically tumultuous and sexually charged court of the most powerful female monarch in history”, Sky said.

It will follow Catherine towards the end of her reign and her passionate affair with the Russian general Grigory Potemkin.

Sky said the Russian empress was “the definition of the modern woman”, wielding supreme power throughout Russia for nearly half of the 18th century, and was “strong-minded, independent, brilliantly intelligent and sexually liberated”.

The drama has been written by Nigel Williams, who wrote the TV mini-series Elizabeth I, which also starred Mirren as a monarch, and will be directed by Philip Martin, whose credits include Prime Suspect and The Crown.

Mirren, 72, won a best actress Oscar for her role in The Queen and also played the monarch on stage in London in The Audience.

Catherine the Great will air on Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the UK and Ireland next year, and will be broadcast around the world.