Wednesday, December 5, 2007

BBC1 unveils new line-up

source: The Guardian

The first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling series of No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books will be transformed next year into a BBC1 drama, it was announced yesterday. A one-off 90-minute television film of the book will be a key part of the 2008 winter season, which will also include a new version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

The eight books in McCall Smith's Ladies Detective Agency series - which follows Botswana-based private investigator Precious Ramotswe - have sold more than 14m copies worldwide and have been translated into 39 languages. If the television version of the first book is successful, more adaptations from the series - which first hit bookshelves in 1998 - could follow, BBC1 said.

Singer Jill Scott will take the lead role of Precious, with Anika Noni Rose as Mma Makutsi and Lucian Msamati as JLB Matekoni.

The drama, which BBC1 bills as "poignant and amusing", will be directed and written by Anthony Minghella - who directed the Oscar winning film the English Patient - and co-written by Richard Curtis, who is [continue reading]

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