EXCLUSIVE:Mark Gatissis suitably on-trend withBookish.
There is pre-launch buzz andinternational buyers have already started snapping up the series.
But its also a world thats fractured and dangerous.
Mark Gatiss as Book in ‘Bookish’UKTV, Nicolas Velter
Director Carolina Giammetta adds: It was all there on the page.
The likes of Joely Richardson, Daniel Mays and Paul McGann make guest appearances along the way.
He co-created the BBC seriesSherlockwith Steven Moffat and wrote several episodes of the Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman-starrer.
UKTV
I thought we should put that back in.
Book thusly has vulnerabilities that make him feel real.
I hate the idea of him just being smugly omnipotent or omniscient, Gatiss says.
Otherwise, its not very interesting.
And hes a vulnerable man, vulnerable about his sexuality and about his past.
Books optimism draws on movie star inspiration.
I remember reading into Dirk Bogarde, who was at the liberation of Belsen.
It had marked him forever.
He was a matinee idol, but he had a darkness that he could never get rid of.
The post-war period fascinates me, and its not really done, Gatiss says.
I thought theres something really interesting there to put a detective into.
Book is gay, which in the UK in 1946 is illegal.
Books wife Trottie lives in an adjoining wallpaper shop.
The relationship also works for Trottie.
Shes a liberated woman, Walker explains.
Its a mutually beneficial relationship, but its also based on real love.
Its not just a marriage of convenience, she tells Deadline.
Book To Screen
Bookishwas originally intended as a novel.
During lockdown I thought Id write it as a book.
I couldnt get the tone right.
I wanted it to be quite light and the darkness just kept coming in.
When Jo and Walter approached me, it was like something from a bad biopic.
They said: You havent got a period detective have you?
And I said: Yes Ive got a script, Gatiss recalls.
Literally the next day Mark came into the office, McGrath remembers.
Gatiss, meanwhile, spies potential to create aBookishlibrary.
If the series lands well, more volumes await.
Id like to continue, he says.
If we come back, Id like to continue 1946 for a lot longer.
Its a very busy year.
Ive got hundreds of ideas.
