The BBC is giving Emily Bronte's Heathcliff a sex change in a contemporary remake of her classic novel Wuthering Heights.

In a new production for BBC1, Heathcliff is transformed from a brooding foundling into a young working class woman called Carol Bolton.

Mirroring the original plot, in which the uncultured Heathcliff was brought home by upper class Cathy's father, Carol is in love with her middle class neighbour Andrew Collins.

The pair were childhood sweethearts, but Andrew's parents now believe she is unsuitable and want him to leave her behind and go to university - a reversal of Bronte's plot.

The three part series will be called Sparkhouse, made by Red Productions, and set in the west Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge. It has been written by Sally Wainwright, the creator of At Home with the Braithwaites.

Red has been responsible for a number of acclaimed dramas set in the north of England, such as Channel 4's Queer as Folk, ITV1's Bob and Rose; and Clocking Off and Linda Green for BBC1.

The loose television adaptation of Wuthering Heights comes 10 years after a movie version that starred Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes.

It will vie for attention with ITV1's modern rewrite of Pride and Prejudice, in which one of the heroines runs away with a black rap star instead of taking up with an English army officer. The new version, Prejudice and Pride, is being developed by Farrukh Dhondy, former head of multicultural programmes at Channel 4.