Kayleigh Llewellyn to Adapt 'The Paying Guests' for BBC — SkimNews
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- BBC Studios Fiction optioned Sarah Waters' 2014 novel "The Paying Guests," the only book in the British author's canon not yet adapted for screen
- Kayleigh Llewellyn, writer of "In My Skin" and "Killing Eve," is attached to adapt the novel as a series; she is also penning the upcoming BBC series "The Dream Lands"
- "The Paying Guests" is set in 1922 London and follows Frances Wray and her mother taking in married lodgers Lilian and Leonard Barber, with a clandestine love affair between Frances and Lilian spiraling into a brutal murder and a nail-biting court case
- Sarah Waters has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and Women's Prize for Fiction; previous screen adaptations include "Tipping the Velvet," "Fingersmith," "Affinity," "The Night Watch," and "The Little Stranger"
- "Fingersmith" also inspired Park Chan-wook's feature film "The Handmaiden"
- No network or streamer is currently attached to the "Paying Guests" adaptation
- BBC Studios Fiction, launched last year under chief creative officer Josh Cole, will add "The Paying Guests" to a slate that includes the upcoming third season of Jimmy McGovern's prison drama "Time" starring David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran
Why it matters: The deal completes the screen adaptation record for Sarah Waters — one of Britain's most-adapted living authors — by tackling the sole novel in her canon not yet on screen. Llewellyn's BBC drama pedigree on "In My Skin" and "Killing Eve" brings prestige credentials to a 1922-set period piece blending queer romance and crime thriller, while the project slots into the newly launched BBC Studios Fiction label under Josh Cole.
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