With some of the biggest small screen smash-hits of recent years - including Love, Death + Robots, The Handmaid's Tale and Game of Thrones - adapted from fiction, there’s little wonder why screenwriters are looking to their bookshelves for inspiration.
Here's a selection of our favourite literary TV adaptations, as well as a few that we can't wait to watch.
Love, Death + Robots is an 18 part Netflix series executive produced by David Fincher, director of Seven, Fight Club and Netflix series Mindhunter. The series is comprised of 18 animated short films of varying lengths, each adapted from short stories, and is a genre mash-up of science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy. The first episode is based on a short story, Sonnie’s Edge, from Peter F. Hamilton’s short story collection A Second Chance at Eden, and sees protagonist Sonnie fighting to stay ahead in the underground world of constructed monster fighting.
Please be advised, the trailer does contain explicit content and is suitable for mature audiences only.
Read an extract
Buy A Second Chance at Eden
AMC, home of The Walking Dead and A Discovery of Witches, has developed Joe Hill’s third novel, NOS4A2, into a TV series starring Zachary Quinto, known for his roles in Heroes and the Star Trek films, as the book’s villain Charlie Manx. The book, and series, follows Vic McQueen as she fights to defeat a supernatural killer who preys on children.
Buy NOS4A2
The BBC’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel of love and revolution has a star-studded cast, with Lily Collins, Olivia Colman, Dominic West and David Oyelowo all appearing. The six-part series will be a drama, not a musical, and is being adapted by Andrew Davies, the writer behind the BBC’s War and Peace and Pride and Prejudice adaptations.
Read an extract
Buy Les Misérables
As part of Netflix’s recently launched programme of original Indian drama, Selection Day, by Booker-prize winning author Aravind Adiga has been adapted into a drama series for the subscription based platform. The novel is a coming-of-age story of two Indian brothers being raised by a sport-obsessed father, set in a world of cricket and corruption.
Read an extract
Buy Selection Day
This Netflix original film stars Jane Fonda and Robert Redford and is based on the book of the same name by Kent Haruf. Completed shortly before his death in 2014, Our Souls At Night is a love story about growing old with grace set in Colorado, USA.
Read an extract
Buy Our Souls At Night
Jessie Burton’s number one bestselling debut novel was adapted into a two-part mini series for BBC One, starring Anna Taylor-Joy, Romola Garai and Alex Hassell. Eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam from the country to start a new live with her husband Johannes, but all is not as it seems . . .
Read an extract
Buy The Miniaturist
The City & The City stars David Morrissey as Inspector Borlu, who in the course of a murder case unravels a secret that the fictional city of Besźel has spent years trying to keep under the surface. The four part drama was shot on location in Manchester and Liverpool, and also stars Maria Schrader, Christian Camargo & Mandeep Dhillon.
Read an extract
Buy The City & The City
Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels were adapted for television, and starred Benedict Cumberbatch as Patrick, alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hugo Weaving as his parents. The series was critically acclaimed, and won five Emmys in 2018.
Read an extract
Buy Patrick Melrose Volume 1
Buy Patrick Melrose Volume 2
Lottie Moggach’s thrilling and unsettling coming-of-age story about teenage identity in the digital world was the inspiration for the Channel Four and Netflix TV series from Bryan Elsey, the co-creator of Skins.
Read an extract
Buy Kiss Me First
Often cited as the first mystery novel, and certainly an inspiration for today’s crime writers, Wilkie Collins’ 1859 classic was adapted into a five-part drama for BBC One which aired in 2018. The series starred Ben Hardy as Walter Hartright, and Jessie Buckley, of War and Peace fame, as Marian Halcombe.
Buy The Woman in White
In this episode of Book Break, Emma tell us all about the thrillers she'd love to see adapted into TV shows:
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