BBC to adapt Lady Chatterley's Lover in new series of literary dramas

The man behind hit crime drama Line of Duty is adapting a new version of DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover for TV.

Jed Mercurio is adapting the book as part of a new series of BBC dramas based on classic novels and plays of the last century that includes small screen versions of Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie and J B Priestley's An Inspector Calls.

Lawrence's sexually explicit tale of a love affair between the aristocratic Lady Chatterley and her gamekeeper was only published in the UK in full in 1960 following a landmark trial which saw publisher, Penguin, accused of breaking obscenity laws.

Jed said: "Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel that constitutes a milestone of English literature. I'm immensely excited by this opportunity to dramatise its iconic themes in a fresh and original way."

The BBC made a version of the novel for TV in 1993 starring Sean Bean and Joely Richardson in the leading roles.

The four books, which also include LP Hartley's The Go-Between, which was famously made into a film in 1970 starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, will be a series of 90-minute films.

BBC drama boss Ben Stephenson said: "Whilst each film will stand as a wonderful treat in its own right, themes about the role of women, class, sexuality and impact of the First World War will ebb and flow across them. I hope that, viewed together, these four masterpieces will present an intelligent and involving picture of what it was like to live in Britain 100 years ago."

 

Press Association

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.