The pair will be joined by Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror), Sean Harris (Prometheus), Shirley Henderson (Anna Karenina), Eddie Marsan (Tyrannosaur), Anatol Yusef (Boardwalk Empire) and Nichola Burley (Wuthering Heights).
The four-part series - directed by Martha Marcy May Marlene's Sean Durkin and written by Red Riding scribe Tony Grisoni - tells the story of a fictional English town devastated by a spate of shootings, exploring the tragedy through the eyes of a journalist and those close to the victims.
"Southcliffe is a fictional market town inhabited by fictional characters, but with similarities to many actual people and places in Britain today," said Grisoni. "Invisible people, anonymous places. The inexplicable chain of events at the dark heart of this four-part drama shatters time and space for Southcliffe's inhabitants.
"Violence and sudden bereavement confronts them with emotions they are unequipped to understand. Rather than analyse or moralise about our characters' actions, we share in them. Southcliffe is an anthem to ordinary people's ability to reinvent themselves in the face of ultimate darkness."
Channel 4's Head of Drama Piers Wenger added: "Tony Grisoni's unique ability to convey the darkness and subtleties of human behaviour is in full evidence in these four brilliant scripts and I'm delighted that Warp Films and Tony have found a world class director like Sean Durkin to bring them to life."
Southcliffe is a Warp Films production in association with Borderline Films for Channel 4. The series will start shooting next month and will air on Channel 4 in 2013.
