EXCLUSIVE: Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley mysteries are being given a new lease of life.
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More than 15 years on from the closer of the BBC’s mid-noughties adaptation, BritBox International, Wolf Hall producer Playground and Salt Films are developing Lynley, a new version, which is being penned by Sherlock writer Steve Thompson and directed by Ed Bazalgette.
Leo Suter ( Vikings: Valhalla ) and Sofia Barclay ( Ted Lasso ) are leading the adaptation, playing DI Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers, an aristocratic police detective and maverick sergeant from a working class background. Together, the mismatched duo become a formidable team, bonded by their desire to see justice done, while the series tackles issues around personality, gender and class.
BBC Studios is deficit financing and selling and Deadline is told deal terms with BritBox are still being figured out. We understand the BBC may acquire in the UK. Cameras will roll on four 90-minute episodes in Ireland in a few weeks time, with hopes for a mid-2025 air date.
American writer George, who is EPing the new version, has written numerous novels, most of which feature Lynley and Havers and are set in the UK. Her most recent, Something to Hide, was published two years ago.
Deadline is told the new adaptation is planned to be distinct from the previous BBC series, which starred Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small, airing for six seasons from 2001 to 2008. The show was well-rated and a petition was launched to save it when it was axed. It is currently available on BritBox in the U.S. and other markets.
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Best-of-British streamer BritBox has been pushing deeper into the commissioning and co-commissioning space of late, pairing with British networks on the likes of Murder is Easy, Towards Zero and Passenger. Speaking to Deadline, its new President Robert Schildhouse recently said the streamer is operating “autonomously” and free of “creative pressure” from the BBC since it was fully acquired by BBC Studios earlier this year.
Colin Callender’s Playground, meanwhile, is in the midst of readying Masterpiece and the BBC’s Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light , the much-anticipated Hilary Mantel sequel starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Jonathan Pryce, which will trace the final few years of Thomas Cromwell’s life . The New York and London-based company also makes the likes of Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small , Sky’s upcoming Small Town, Big Story and the BBC’s The Missing.
Callender and Playground’s David Stern are exec producing Lynley alongside Thompson, George and Suzanne McAuley, who is also acting as series producer via her Ireland-based Salt Films.
George is represented by Erica Silverman and Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. Suter is repped by Waring McKenna in the UK, WME and 3 Arts in the U.S. Barclay is repped by 42 in the UK and Gersh in the U.S. Thompson is repped by Independent Talent Group in the UK. Bazalgette is repped by Curtis Brown in the UK.
BritBox declined comment. Deadline has reached out to BBC Studios for comment.
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