A NEW television drama is set to explore the dramatic story of one of the greatest natural disasters to shake the ancient world - with Lowestoft's Reece Ritchie in the lead roleReece, who recently returned to the town after five weeks' filming in South Africa, has become known for starring in the Hollywood films 10,000BC, The Lovely Bones and Prince Of Persia.

A NEW television drama is set to explore the dramatic story of one of the greatest natural disasters to shake the ancient world - with Lowestoft's Reece Ritchie in the lead role

Reece, who recently returned to the town after five weeks' filming in South Africa, has become known for starring in the Hollywood films 10,000BC, The Lovely Bones and Prince Of Persia.

But the 60-minute BBC1 production, Atlantis is his first major television production.

'I've never done an actual drama for television before, and this was quite a challenge, but I really enjoyed it. It's nice to have a bigger bit of the action,' he told The Journal.

The story centres around the eruption of a huge volcano in the Aegean Sea which destroyed the island of Thera, flooded the nearby island of Crete, and led to the legend of Atlantis.

'Most of my work in film involves the green screen application and 99pc of this production was shot against a green screen,' said Reece, whose so-star is Stephanie Leonida (Yes; MirrorMask).

Atlantis, which will be screened later this year, combines historical research with the Atlantis legend.

A BBC spokesman said: 'Based on the work of leading scientists, archaeologists and historians, this drama immerses viewers in the exotic world of the Minoans.'

Atlantis is the first British TV drama to use the 'virtual backlot' production technique of the movie 300 - which means that the entire production is shot in a studio against green screen, mixing physical with virtual (CG) set builds to recreate earthquakes, the volcanic eruption and resulting tsunamis.