Colin inquired
I do remember reading somewhere - I think in a book jacket
from the 80s? listing amonghis other works including, The
Factory Series - now a BBC television production, but?I've
never been able to find out any more; whether it was?never
produced, or just a pilot -?if any avians know?any more about
that I'd be thrilled to hear it!?Talk of films a few years
ago doesn't seem to have come to anything.
Sadly it's just another TV series that never got off the
ground. It was close, scripts were written (by Paul Billing
who went on to write a Prime Suspect and some Reginald Hill
adaptations). I read one and it was pretty good. Kenith Trodd
(Dennis Potter's collaborator) was to produce for the BBC.
But then Derek - and Dennis Potter - died and the momentum
went out of the project. Publishers love to jump the gun on
film/TV adaptations.
There are two film adaptation of his books, both made in
France - Les Mois d'avril sont meurtriers (adapted from The
Devil's Home on Leave) and* *On ne meurt que deux fois
(starring Charlotte Rampling and adapted from He Died With
His Eyes Open). I've seen part of the latter (I was watching
it in company with the author and he insisted on going out
for a drink about half way through). It looked OK up to that
point, though the French have a rather more upmarket vision
of squalor as compared to the book.
There's still talk of future adaptations but nothing remotely
concrete. The excellent Cathi Unsworth recently presented a
series of radio shows concerned with Derek's work There's
info about them here -
www.serpentstail.com/content_item?id=213 - but sadly I can
find no sign of the promised podcasts just yet.
As a hostage to fortune I'll mention that I'm starting work
on the authorised biography. Will take a year or two, I'm
sure.
John
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