Critically Acclaimed Rivals Producer to Adapt International Best Seller
Published: October 29, 2024 — Happy Prince, part of ITV Studios, has optioned the rights to Wideacre, the international bestselling novel from Philippa Gregory, the acclaimed author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.
The book will be adapted by Dominic Treadwell-Collins and produced by his Happy Prince label, the company behind the smash hit production of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, which launched to rave reviews on Disney+ earlier this month.
Wideacre follows the story of Beatrice Lacey, destined to lose her beloved ancestral estate, Wideacre, once she is married. Deeply connected to the land, Beatrice will use any means necessary to protect her heritage and keep control of the estate. A woman bound and mistreated by the 18th century laws of entail, with no right to inheritance, Beatrice knows only her ruthless ambition will get her what she wants. This takes her on a journey of seduction, betrayal, corruption and murder – but as Beatrice is about to succeed, she’s haunted by the one person who knows the extent of her scheming and her capacity for evil.
Set in Georgian England, Wideacre is a gripping, sensual and audacious feminist saga – the novel that brought Philippa Gregory to bestselling fame, and the first in a trilogy which includes The Favoured Child and Meridon.
Treadwell-Collins will work to the same format as Rivals, leading a writer’s room and executive producing the series, alongside Philippa Gregory and Happy Prince’s Alexander Lamb, with Adam Carter on board as Associate Producer.
Commented Philippa Gregory: “I am very excited to see Wideacre come to the screen. It was a best-seller when it was first published in 1987 and a best-seller again in its 30th anniversary edition. The Happy Prince team have a real understanding of the frustrations of women in the 18th century. Beatrice is a young woman who stands to lose everything, but she shows ambition, passion and a complete absence of scruples to succeed in a world that is completely against her because she is a woman. Above all – her greatest feature – she is not at all ladylike.”
Dominic Treadwell-Collins said: “I have longed to adapt Wideacre for television for years. It’s a feral, wicked and delicious novel, brilliantly plotted and audacious in its storytelling. Beatrice Lacey is the ultimate anti-heroine and the team are so excited to work with the genius that is Philippa Gregory to bring her daring feminist historical fiction to the screen.”
Earlier this year it was announced that Happy Prince had been commissioned to produce Daughter for ITV and ITVX, written by BAFTA and RTS award-winning writer Sarah Phelps, while previous shows include the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel Holding and modern love story You & Me for ITVX.
Ends
Source
ITV Press Centre
