Best TV adaptations to look out for in 2018
From Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence to Benedict Cumberbatch in Patrick Melrose, find out some of the best book adaptations coming to TV later this year
Ordeal by Innocence BBC1
It was canned at Christmas because one of its stars was accused of sexual assault. Scenes are now being reshot and the Agatha Christie drama, starring Bill Nighy and Anna Chancellor, is expected to air in the spring.
The City and the City BBC2
A four-part adaptation of China Miéville’s novel, starring David Morrissey. It’s a murder mystery with echoes of Kafka and Orwell.
King Lear BBC2
Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson head an outstanding ensemble cast under the direction of Richard Eyre. This version is set in the present with Hopkins as Lear presiding over a military dictatorship in England.
Patrick Melrose Sky Atlantic
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the “narcissistic, suicidal alcoholic” of the title, based on the semi-autobiographical novels of Edward St Aubyn. Each of the five stories chronicles a chapter in Melrose’s life.
Woman in White BBC1
Regarded by many as Wilkie Collins’s finest novel, this complex tale of love, loss and deceit, is told over five parts and stars Ben Hardy, Jessie Buckley and Dougray Scott.
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The Little Drummer Girl BBC1
Hoping to attract the same buzz as The Night Manager, this adaptation of John le Carré’s spy novel stars Florence Pugh. It’s set in the late 1970s against a backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East.
Vanity Fair ITV
A sumptuous adaptation of the William Makepeace Thackeray classic, starring Olivia Cooke and Tom Bateman as well as Suranne Jones, Martin Clunes, Frances de la Tour and Michael Palin.
