BBC Developing Claire McGowan Thriller ‘What You Did’ Into TV Series With ‘Boiling Point’ Writer Roanne Bardsley

EXCLUSIVE: Boiling Point writer Roanne Bardsley is penning a TV adaptation of Claire McGowan thriller What You Did for the BBC.

The public broadcaster is developing the project, which hasn’t yet been greenlit, with a view to airing as a limited series, we understand. Argonon-backed Worzel Gummidge and Hard Cell indie Leopard Pictures is producing.

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From prolific Northern Irish thriller writer McGowan, the book charts the reunion of six university friends together again after 20 years apart. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again, as she staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatized, she claims that she has been assaulted – by Ali’s husband, Mike.

The development is third time lucky for McGowan. The BBC previously secured the rights to her novels The Lost and The Dead Ground around a decade ago but neither made it to screen. McGowan’s debut The Fall garnered rave reviews and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize for young writers.

Bardsley, meanwhile, is an in-demand TV scribe. She is a writer and AP on Boiling Point, the Stephen Graham-starring BBC TV series based on the Phillip Barantini indie pic that debuted last weekend. Other credits include upcoming Apple TV+ period drama The Buccaneers, Netflix drama Everything Now from The Crown maker Left Bank and Channel 4’s Screw. Deadline revealed last week that she is also working on a TV adaptation of Lucy Clarke’s The Hike with Studiocanal’s Urban Myth.

The BBC declined to comment on the What You Did development.

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