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Rivals producer options Philippa Gregory novel

Carton image of a crown with the Happy Prince lettering underneath

The novel is the first in a trilogy and is set in Georgian England

Rivals production company Happy Prince has optioned the TV rights to Philippa Gregory’s historical novel Wideacre.

Set in Georgian England, the story centres on Beatrice Lacey, who is set to lose her much-loved ancestral estate, Wideacre, once she is married. She sets about using any ruthless means necessary to protect her inheritance… Wideacre is the first in a trilogy that includes The Favoured Child and Meridon.

Happy Prince’s Dominic Treadwell-Collins is adapting the source material as leader of the writer’s room. He also executive produces alongside Gregory and Alexander Lamb with Adam Carter on board as associate producer.

Treadwell-Collins said: “I have longed to adapt Wideacre for television for years. It’s a feral, wicked and delicious novel, brilliantly plotted and audacious in its storytelling. Beatrice Lacey is the ultimate anti-heroine and the team are so excited to work with the genius that is Philippa Gregory to bring her daring feminist historical fiction to the screen.”

Gregory added: “I am very excited to see Wideacre come to the screen. It was a best-seller when it was first published in 1987 and a best-seller again in its 30th anniversary edition. The Happy Prince team have a real understanding of the frustrations of women in the 18th century.

“Beatrice is a young woman who stands to lose everything, but she shows ambition, passion and a complete absence of scruples to succeed in a world that is completely against her because she is a woman. Above all – her greatest feature – she is not at all ladylike.”

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