From those we loved to those we can’t wait to watch, we've rounded up the very best TV series and films based on fiction.
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.
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.
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 . . .
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.
Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels have been 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.
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.
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.
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.
Not one, but two Tim Winton novels are being adapted for the big screen:
Tim Winton’s 2002 novel Dirt Music, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, is being adapted into a film starring Kelly MacDonald as Georgie Jutland and Garrett Hedlund as Luther Fox. This is the story of Georgie Jutland, isolated physically and emotionally in rural Western Australia with a man she doesn’t love, and the stranger who turns her life upside down.
The Riders, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1995, is to be adapted into a film for Scott Free, Ridley Scott’s film and TV production company. Fred Scully awaits the arrival of his wife and daughter to start a new life in Ireland. But when the plane lands, only his daughter is on it. The novel follows Fred Scully’s subsequent journey across Europe, searching for the wife he now realises he never really knew.
