Gillian Anderson has joined the cast of Johnny English Reborn.

She will play MI7 secret agent Pamela Head alongside Rowan Atkinson in the film, which begins shooting in September, reports Deadline.

The actress recently scrapped plans to write and star in a biopic based on Ernest Hemingway's wife Martha Gelhorn after it was announced that HBO is moving forward with a film portraying the "exact story" Anderson hoped to tell.

She told the Daily Express: "The sad news is I have to let go of Gellhorn as HBO is doing the exact story with Nicole and Clive Owen. But these things happen and I was taking too long getting the script right and it's my own damned fault."

No release date for Johnny English Reborn has been announced.

There was a time when the world went mad for Gillian Anderson. Or at least for Dana Scully, the sceptical FBI agent she played in The X-Files.

Internet sites with names like Gillian Anderson’s Testosterone Brigade sprung up, with devotees captivated by her cerebral yet sultry demeanour. FHM voted her Sexiest Woman in the World in 1996, after an April cover shoot sold so quickly that fans bombarded the magazine’s office with requests for back issues (one hopeful even sent in an unsolicited cheque for $200). When she arrived in Australia to promote the show, for a series of signings in shopping malls, there was a virtual stampede as thousands flocked to see her.

Today, she walks down London’s Bond Street, past the window of the luxurious Westbury Hotel where we meet, undisturbed. “I don’t usually get stopped,” she tells me, now safely ensconced on a sofa and ordering a latte. “People are pretty respectful. It’s mostly people turning heads going, ‘Wasn’t that…?’” It’s easy to see why. Her long hair now a blend of brown and blonde – some way from the distinctive auburn crop she sported in the show. At 5ft 3in, she’s also much...

Hollywood stars Kim Cattrall and Gillian Anderson will appear in an epic adaptation of William Boyd's best-selling novel Any Human Heart for Channel 4.

The four-part adaptation covers a myriad of pivotal 20th century events seen through the eyes of one man.

Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin will all take the role of writer Logan Mountstuart, playing him at different stages of his life.

Boyd said: "I am both thrilled and exhilarated at the prospect of these three sensational actors taking on the role of Logan Mountstuart as we follow him through the 20th century on the emotional, dramatic and rackety journey that is his long and tumultuous life."

Bleak House and The X Files actress Anderson will star as the Duchess of Windsor.

Cattrall, well-known for playing the sexually adventurous Samantha in Sex and the City, will take on the role of Logan's glamorous lover Gloria.

Of the various other women in Logan's life, newcomer Emerald Fennell will play the young writer's wife Lottie, Hayley Atwell will portray Freya, his mistress and the love of his life, and Natasha Little will play his third...