ITV to Adapt Falco Novels for Television

©Lindsey Davis

Great news for lovers of historical crime fiction and specifically those who love their historical crime fiction set during the Roman Empire.

According to Deadline.com Lindsey Davis’s series of Falco novels are being adapted for television by Mammoth Screen who were the producers of “Victoria”.  

Originally pitched to the BBC the series has now been moved to ITV as is being overseen by the Polly Hill who is the head of drama.  More information can be found here.

Lindsey Davis is the author of 20 novels featuring fictional Roman private detective, reluctant imperial agent and sometime poet Marcus Didius Falco.   The first book in the series Silver Pigs was published 30 years ago in 1989.  The last book to (directly) feature Marcus Didius Falco is Nemesis which was published in 2010.   Falco does crop up in the new series Falco: The Next Generation which features Marcus Didius Falco's adopted daughter, Flavia Albia.  The first book in the series is The Ides of April which was published in 2013.

The 1983 film Age of Treason which featured Bryan Brown as Marcus Didius Falco was based on the first book Silver Pigs.  However it has been disowned by Lindsey Davis on her website as it  "It departed from everything that I think makes the books special."  It bore little relation to the book, jettisoning most of the plot and characters.

A change of pace for Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis latest foray into the historical world will be about the English Civil War. According to Book Trade Info Rebels and Traitors is a departure from her much loved Roman series. The historical novel will tell the story of two different people on different sides of the war and what it is like to have fought on the frontline. Century who also publish her Roman series have acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights. Traitors and Rebels will be published in September 2009.

The most recent book in her Ancient Rome series featuring Marcus Didius Falco is Alexandria and a review can be found here. The twentieth book in her excellent series is due out in June 2010 under the title Nemesis.

And if you want to read SHOTS' interview between Mike Ripley and Lindsey, click here.