BBC1 to adapt Emma Healey’s bestselling thriller Elizabeth Is Missing
Story of a woman's search for a missing friend in the face of encroaching dementia will be a 90-minute BBC1 drama
The BBC is turning Emma Healey’s award-winning novel Elizabeth is Missing into a 90-minute film.
Scripted by Andrea Gibb, who wrote the recent film adaptation of Swallows and Amazons, the story centres around the central character Maud who investigates the disappearance of her best friend Elizabeth. She is convinced that something terrible has happenedm but has to embark on the quest with her dementia worsening.
Gibb said, “I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to adapt this beautiful story. Emma has created an extraordinary heroine in Maud - she’s funny, tenacious, loyal - while also giving us a moving portrait of dementia from the inside out.”
The BBC’s controller of drama commissioning Piers Wenger added, “Part detective story, part portrait of a fracturing mind, Andrea Gibb’s witty, sensitive adaptation of Emma Healey’s novel brings this first-hand account of experiencing dementia to life.”
Healey's debut novel hit the top five of the Sunday Times bestseller list and won the Costa First Novel Award in January this year.
Casting will announced in the coming months, with an expected broadcast next year.
