BBC summons The Musketeers

The BBC has commissioned a raft of new drama series from its in-house production team, including period pieces The Musketeers and The Lady Vanishes.

BBC Productions is behind The Musketeers (10×60′), written by Adrian Hodges (Primeval) for BBC1. The series is an updated version of Alexandre Dumas’ adventure novel The Three Musketeers, which has been turned a story-of-the-week format. BBC Worldwide is coproducing.

Slated for a Christmas release on BBC1, The Lady Vanishes (1×90′) is a single film adapted by Fiona Seres (The Silence) from Ethel Lina White’s novel The Wheel Spins.

The 1930s-set thriller, which has previously been filmed by director Alfred Hitchcock, tells the story of a woman who mounts a search for a traveling companion she meets on a train and apparently disappears.

Also heading to BBC1 is Frankie (6×60′), created and written by Lucy Gannon (Soldier Soldier), about the life and work of a district nurse whose patients are more important than her personal life.

Meanwhile, BBC3 will air In The Flesh (3×90′), a zombie drama from first-time writer Dominic Mitchell, who was discovered through Northern Voices, a BBC writer’s room competition.

The miniseries begins after the zombie uprising has been put down by the Human Volunteer Force, with any surviving zombies are being medicated and re-integrated into society.