New “risk-taking” dramas on BBC One slate
A clutch of hefty dramas has been greenlit for BBC One, including a multi-part series about the fall of Troy, a feature-length period drama from Hanif Kureishi and an adaptation of the Cormoran Strike novels.
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Troy – Fall Of A City
Kudos and writer David Farr have developed Troy – Fall Of A City, set against the backdrop of the war between Greece and Troy. Kudos‘ Derek Wax exec produces alongside the BBC’s Matthew Read.
Farr said of the commission: “The story of Ilium, the ancient city of Troy, has always gripped me. Fall Of A City aims to convey in all its emotional richness, the effects of war, and the toll taken on city and family by the horrors of the siege. Though one of Europe’s oldest stories, it could not be more sadly pertinent today.
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To Sir with Love
E.R. Braithwaite’s 1959 autobiographical WWII-set novel, To Sir with Love, is being adapted by Hanif Kureishi as a feature-length drama. The piece follows Guyanese engineer Ricky Braithwaite as he is demobbed from the RAF to find a Britain full of racial prejudice.
His work as a teacher in the East End of London in the 1950s went on to unlock the power of education in the face of widespread opposition. Rainmark Films is the shingle behind the project with Tracey Scoffield exec-ing with Lucy Richer (BBC).
Kureishi said of the work: “E.R. Brathwaite’s To Sir with Love… is a moving, tough and informative story about an intelligent man whose only hope of work – since he is black – is to become a teacher. As a young man in the 1960s, TSWL was the only novel I was aware of which dealt with the subject of race in Britain, and I hope this dramatisation provides a vivid portrayal, particularly for the young, of how Britain has changed since then, and how it has remained the same.”
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The Last Post
Another period piece, The Last Post, is from Bonafide Films and The Forge. Peter Moffat has written the series, which is set in Aden in 1965. Based on the author’s childhood memories, the drama examines day to day life in the British army – in a dangerous place – as the old order of the 1950s was fading.
Bonafide‘s Margery Bone and Elwen Rowlands executive produce, as do The Forge’s George Faber and Mark Pybus; Matthew Read is on board for the BBC. Â Â
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Rush of BloodÂ
Mark Billingham’s bestselling novel Rush of Blood is also heading to the small screen as a 3 x 60, adapted by Matt Charman for Murderous Productions Limited/On the Corner. When three couples return from a holiday in Florida, they realise that one of them is responsible for a murder. Executive producers are Jolyon Symonds and Matthew Read, as well as the writers Billingham and Charman.Â
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The Cormoran Strike MysteriesÂ
Robert Galbraith’s (aka J.K. Rowling) The Cormoran Strike Mysteries novels, specifically The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm, and the soon-to-be-published Career of Evil centre on the eponymous detective Strike and his female assistant Robin in a dark, contemporary London.
The series is made by
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