Successful TV adaptations of Novels

20th January 2020

One of the most successful books published in 2019 was Normal People, young Irish writer Sally Rooney’s second novel. Set in rural Ireland and Dublin, it is about Connell and Marianne, an exquisite love story portraying how a person can change another person’s life.

Normal People has been adapted into a much-anticipated 12-part TV series, filmed on location in Dublin, Sligo and Italy and soon to be aired on the BBC. It got the TripFiction team thinking about other books adapted for TV, and the places in which they were set.

Brideshead Revisited. Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel follows the life and relationships of Charles Ryder, including his close friendship with aristocratic Sebastian and Julia Flyte, who live in Brideshead Castle. The novel explores themes including nostalgia for the age of English aristocracy, Catholicism, and the nearly overt homosexuality of Sebastian Flyte’s coterie at Oxford University.

A faithful and well-received television adaptation of the novel was produced in an 11-part miniseries by Granada Television in 1981, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. Filmed mainly at Castle Howard in Yorkshire – and on location in Oxford, Gozo, Italy, London and on board the QE2 – the Telegraph listed it in 2015 at number 1 in its list of the greatest television adaptations, stating that ‘Brideshead Revisited is television’s greatest literary adaptation, bar none. It’s utterly faithful to Evelyn Waugh’s novel yet it’s somehow more than that, too.’

Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen’s masterpiece of English society and manners, published in 1813, follows Elizabeth Bennet who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. A classic piece filled with comedy, its humour lies in its honest depiction of manners, education, marriage and money during the Regency era. 

The most successful of many adaptations for stage and screen was probably the 1995 TV series, starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. Locations used included Lyme Park in Disley, Cheshire as the magnificent exterior of Pemberley, Luckington Court in Chippenham, Wiltshire (Longbourn), Belton House in Lincolnshire (Rosings) and Edgcote Hall, Banbury, Oxfordshire (Netherfield Park). 

More recently, John Lanchester’s 2012 satirical novel Capital is set in London during the credit crunch. It follows the lives of a group of people who live in – or are connected to – Pepys Road, in South London. It brings together their diversity, reflecting the big city.

I loved the three-part series of the TV adaptation in 2015, written by Peter Bowker and starring Toby Jones, Rachael Stirling, Adeel Akhtar, Lesley Sharp, Danny Ashok, Mona Goodwin and Radoslav Kaim. ‘When the residents of an affluent London street receive a strange note they dismiss it as a marketing campaign, until things begin to escalate.’

My Brilliant Friend is a modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors. It is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Elena Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city (Naples) and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.

The book, together with Ferrante’s other Neapolitan Novels, was adapted into an Italian-American drama television series. A co-production between American cable network HBO and Italian networks RAI and TIMvision, it premiered on HBO on November 18, 2018 and captured perfectly the poverty, danger and distinct characteristics of Elena and Lila’s neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples, and the nature of their enduring friendship. 

There are of course plenty of other successful adaptations of books for the small screen, many with a TripFiction-like sense of place. Which have you enjoyed over the years?

Andrew for the TripFiction team

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