The Woman in White

I'm looking forward to the BBC's adaptation of The Woman in White, based on the 1859 book by Wilkie Collins -  the book is often credited as being the first mystery novel and is one of the best supernatural stories ever written. The five-part series follows Walter Hartright as he encounters a ghostly woman dressed in all white on a moonlit road and is drawn into a mysterious and disturbing world.

It starts tonight on BBC1 - The Victorian mystery has inspired five silent movies, a major Hollywood film, a German TV mini-series, a Soviet version, and two previous BBC mini-series.

And now it’s back. This new BBC1 adaptation, written by Fiona Series and directed by Carl Tibbetts, immerses viewers in the story of Walter Hartright (Ben Hardy) and the mystery of the Woman in White, as well as the two young ladies Walter tutors: Marian Halcombe (Jessie Buckley) and Laura Fairlie (Olivia Vinall).

The TV adaptation takes a different approach to narrative structure, starting at some point towards the end of the story and then taking viewers back to the beginning. We then flash between the two time periods as events unfold. Novelist Wilkie Collins started out with a much more linear approach. The novel, which was published in serial form between 1859 and 1860 in Charles Dickens’ magazine in the UK and in Harper’s Weekly in the US, begins with Walter’s invitation to Limmeridge House and his moonlit encounter with the Woman in White. Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective, so readers have no idea where the story might end up.