Lee Child, Dancing Ledge dramatise true crime

MIPTV: Crime novelist Lee Child has partnered with UK firm Dancing Ledge Productions for a drama series based on real-life stories of people risking their lives in the pursuit of justice.

Lee Child

Fremantle-backed Dancing Ledge will produce Lee Child: True Crime, which dramatises tales of men and women from around the world who fight for justice in the face of great danger.

Stories featured in the show will echo those of Child’s novels, such as the Jack Reacher series, celebrating individuals who triumph against impossible odds.

Dancing Ledge has put together a research team to comb through real-life crime stories from the US and across the world, while the company and Child are now discussing the project with potential showrunners before taking the series to market.

Child said: “We all read thrillers and watch movies where an average person goes to extraordinary lengths to defend family or tribe, or to seek justice. It turns out that reality goes even further – we have some amazing stories to tell. Some of them barely believable, but they’re all true.”

Dancing Ledge CEO Laurence Bowen compared Child’s Jack Reacher character to outsiders such as Robin Hood, King Arthur and the Lone Ranger, adding: “He represents an absolutely universal force, so finding the real-life men and women who have been driven to step outside the normal rules and get justice done in their own way is incredibly exciting. There will be nothing else like this on television.”

Dancing Ledge’s recent credits include Netflix drama Delhi Crime plus The New Pope and Porters. Child’s work has been published in more than 100 territories worldwide and translated into 40 languages.