Eagle Eye Drama to Adapt Barbara Cartland Bio — SkimNews
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- Eagle Eye Drama acquired the rights to adapt "The Great Dictator," Matthew Sweet's biography of Dame Barbara Cartland, published this month by Hodder & Stoughton.
- Barbara Cartland, born in 1901 and dubbed the "Queen of Romance," is the third-biggest selling author of all time behind Shakespeare and Agatha Christie, with her romance novels selling close to a billion copies in 38 languages.
- Matthew Sweet's book drew on years of research and unique access to the Cartland family archives, earning positive reviews from The Guardian, The Times, and documentarian Louis Theroux, and was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.
- Eagle Eye CEO Walter Iuzzolino said Sweet uncovered a story "more compelling and unbelievable than her most outlandish plots," while CCO Jo McGrath called Cartland a "gift of a role for a great actress."
- Cartland was step-grandmother to Princess Diana, dined with Margaret Thatcher (to whom she prescribed alternative remedies and oxygen supplements), and was a friend of Winston Churchill.
- Eagle Eye is perhaps best known for the Mark Gatiss crime series Bookish (renewed for a third season) and also produces Channel 4's The Couple Next Door plus ITV's Patience and Professor T.
Why it matters: Eagle Eye Drama — owned by ITV Studios — is adding a prestige literary adaptation to a slate already anchored by Bookish and ITV's Patience and Professor T. Cartland's appeal to broadcasters extends well beyond her billion-copy sales: her connections to Princess Diana, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher guarantee a built-in biographical hook that prestige drama buyers consistently underperform on, though Anne Reid already starred as Cartland in the BBC's 2008 telemovie In Love with Barbara.
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