Trunchbull star Bertie Carvel to play Nick Clegg

The new drama is base on the 2010 election and the back room deals that led to the creation of the coalition

West End star Bertie Carvel - best known for his role as Miss Trunchbull in the hit musical Matilda - will play Nick Clegg in a new Channel 4 drama.

The drama, which sees Doctors star Mark Dexter playing David Cameron and Mark Gatiss playing Peter Mandelson, focuses on the deals behind the coalition.

The drama looks at "Clegg's astonishing rise from rank outsider to the man who would decide the fate of the country".

The 90-minute show is written by This House playwright James Graham.

Sherlock star Mark Gatiss (l) will play Peter Mandelson in the forthcoming drama

Political drama This House, set at the end of James Callaghan's Labour government, had an acclaimed run at the National Theatre in two years ago.

Filming on the new television drama, which also sees Gordon Brown portrayed by actor Ian Grieve, begins filming in London next week.

Carvel, who starred in the C4 series Babylon earlier this year, was the first actor to play the hammer-throwing, tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull in the RSC adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda. It won him several awards including an Olivier for best actor in a musical.

This Christmas he will star as the eponymous Jonathan Strange in a BBC adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Carvel and Gatiss previously performed together in an episode of BBC One's Sherlock. League of Gentlemen star Gatiss, one of the principal writers on Sherlock, plays the detective's brother, Mycroft Holmes, in the series.