Stephen Fry has been cast as an art expert who gets mixed up in an underworld heist in a new TV film based on a novel by Rebus writer Ian Rankin.

The actor and presenter will play Professor Gissing in ITV1’s Doors Open which is set in Mr Rankin’s hometown of Edinburgh.

Mr Fry said: “I picked up Ian Rankin’s breathless and ingenious thriller Doors Open at an airport a year or so back and as I read I just knew it would make a thrilling, charming and original TV drama. I also adored the character of Professor Gissing and a shamefully vain part of me refused to see anyone else in the role. I am so thrilled that ITV were of the same opinion”.

The story follows self-made millionaire Mike Mackenzie, played by Dougie Henshall, who attempts to swap a series of priceless masterpieces with forgeries.

Filming starts in the Scottish capital later this month.

Mr Rankin’s crime novels about Detective Inspector John Rebus are regulars on the bestseller lists and have been filmed for television with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott playing the detective.