Anna Friel to star in The Vatican

Anna Friel is returning to television.

The 36-year-old actress is set to take on a co-starring role opposite 'Friday Night Lights' actor Kyle Chandler in Showtime's drama 'The Vatican', according to Deadline.

The show has been described as ''a provocative contemporary genre thriller about spirituality, power and politics set against the modern-day political machinations within the Catholic church''.

Anne will play Kayla Duffy, the younger sister of Kyle's character Cardinal Thomas Duffy.

Matthew Goode will play Papal Secretary Bernd Koch while Sebastian Koch is set to star as Cardinal Marco Malerba.

Production is set to begin in Rome next month.

Anna recently revealed she relies on ''vampire facials'' to retain her youthful looks.

She said: ''I'm still smoking but I've cut that down to three or four a day. My brother's a doctor and he's created a smoothie that's good for the skin.

''And I have this thing called a vampire facelift - they take a phial of blood out of your arm, separate the plasma and inject it in your face.

''It helps the skin repair itself

''I love wine. If ever I have a trainer they say: 'Anna, if you want to be really fit, that's got to stop'.

''But we do all this hard work, it's hard not to have a glass of wine.

''Then it's whether you have the discipline to just have one glass or whether you think, 'Oh, look, there's a gorgeous bottle of cabernet...'''