Neal Street follows Midwife with mysteries

The UK prodco behind medical period drama Call the Midwife is set to adapt the bestselling Flavia de Luce mystery novels.

Neal Street Productions has picked up rights to author Alan Bradley’s books, which follow the adventures of an 11-year-old detective and are set in a UK village after the Second World War.

The books have been sold to publishers in 35 countries and translated into 31 languages

The TV series will be exec produced by Neal Street’s Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes and coproduced by Neal Street’s Julie Blumenthal and William Horberg of Wonderful Films.

Mendes said: “After the success of Call the Midwife we were keen to find another high-quality book series to adapt and luckily discovered Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce books.

“I have always been a fan of the classic British mystery detective genre and Flavia de Luce is a fresh and captivating take on it. The books are clever, suspenseful and very funny, and I think are perfect for television.”

Neal Street was formed in 2003 by Mendes, Harris and Caro Newling. Its credits include movies Revolutionary Road, Starter For Ten and Jarhead; Call the Midwife for BBC1; and theatrical shows such as Shrek The Musical.

Call The Midwife, set in the 1950s and based on the memoirs of author Jennifer Worth, was renewed for a second season earlier this year.

Neal Street is also producing adaptations of four Shakespeare plays as part of the BBC’s Shakespeare season.