The Child in Time, starring Cumberbatch, kicks off a trio of adaptations that may make the author the most screen-friendly novelist of his generationThree decades after it won the Whitbread prize, Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time has become a TV film. It will be screened this weekend in the coveted Sunday 9pm drama slot on BBC1, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing a children’s writer whose daughter vanishes on a shopping trip. The rush of productions reflects the fact that McEwan has consistently used genre templates. As a young writer of scandalous short stories, McEwan was rapidly talent-scouted by TV drama departments. Earlier in his career, McEwan suffered the two worst results a screenwriter can endure: banning and studio interference.

Source: The Guardian September 23, 2017 07:52 UTC