The series, set to film in Boston and Philadelphia, will air sometime in the new year according to a PBS spokesperson. In the work, Beale and Emond will portray the title characters. Barbour takes on the second president's political adversary Thomas Jefferson, who would later take up well-known correspondence with his foe. Both signers of the Declaration of Independence would die 50 years to the day of the celebrated passing of their document. Beale, who made his Broadway debut recently in Jumpers, is an Associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National and Almeida Theatres. He has earned awards for his performances in stagings including Othello, Candide, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. He was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2003.

Emond earned a Tony Award nomination for her work in Life x 3. Other stage credits include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre), Homebody/Kabul (NYTW), Nine Armenians (Manhattan Theatre Club), Craig Lucas's The Dying Gaul (Vineyard), Kander and Ebb's Over and Over (Signature), Peter Hedges's Baby Anger (Playwrights Horizons), A.R. Gurney's Far East (Williamstown) and Ancestral Voices (Lincoln Center). The actress made her Broadway debut in 1776 in the role of Abigail Adams.

Recent Assassins star Barbour portrayed the presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz, killer of William McKinley. He has appeared on Broadway as Rochester in Jane Eyre, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Billy Bigelow in Carousel and Officer Lockstock in Urinetown. Other credits include the original Broadway cast of Cyrano and the national tour of The Secret Garden. His new CD, Love Songs, will be released in conjunction with a concert tour this fall.