ITV plans return to Selfridge drama

The writer of forthcoming ITV period drama Mr Selfridge is plotting to turn the show into a four-season series, and is also working on three new projects for the BBC.

Andrew Davies, whose credits include Bleak House, Pride & Prejudice and South Riding, began writing the first season for the UK commercial broadcaster after exec producer Kate Lewis asked him to read Lindy Woodhead’s biography Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge.

Mr Selfridge (10×60′) tells the story of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the flamboyant entrepreneur who founded the eponymous London department store in 1909.

“I got fascinated by the character and also, as a viewer, I like workplace dramas,” Davies told C21. “I love Mad Men and I like the way it combines the way somebody earns their living and the struggle for power with a family drama, so I thought there was the opportunity to do that here.”

The series is produced by ITV Studios and is due to air on ITV1 in 2013. ITV Studios Global Entertainment is handling worldwide distribution.

Davies said: “It’s a mixture of a character study of Harry and a portrait of a marriage. We’re hoping it’s going to be four seasons of 10 episodes and eventually it will be a lot to do with the children and the Selfridge inheritance. The shop is like a great ocean liner, with loads of people working in it who we select as principle characters.

“It’s a period show but we want to give it as much of a modern feel as we can. It’s not sedate, it’s fast moving. It has shock and surprises but without being ridiculous.”

Davies is now working on three projects for the BBC. He is adapting two crime novels in the Quirke series, written by John Banville under the pen name Benjamin Black. He is also writing a drama about the last days of poet and writer Dylan Thomas, to coincide with the centenary of his birth in 2014.

Davies is also adapting Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables into a five-hour drama, to be produced by the BBC and UK production company Lookout Point.