A writing team led by the One Day author, David Nicholls, and that includes Caitlin Moran is bringing Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ to the small screen in a 10-part BBC One adaptation of the classic tale of teenage life in British suburbia.
Nicholls, who described the book as “a classic piece of comic writing and an incredible piece of ventriloquism on Sue Townsend’s part”, will adapt the book that produced one of the best-known literary creations of the 1980s.
Known for Mole’s comically dramatic assessments of his life in a Midlands cul-de-sac – “I feel like a character in a Russian novel half the time” – the book sold 20m copies worldwide and was translated into 30 languages.
The BBC said: “With only a multi-coloured ballpoint pen as his guide, Adrian worries about his spots, his parents’ divorce, the torment of first love and the fact he’s never seen a female nipple.”
None of the cast has been revealed, and producers say “a nationwide … search is currently underway to find Adrian”. Gian Sammarco starred in the Thames TV’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole in 1985, with Julie Walters playing Mole’s mother, Pauline.
The book was also adapted as a musical and a play, and a second TV series of based on Townsend’s follow-up novel, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, was released in 1987.
Big Talk Studios, the production company behind Ludwig and The Outlaws, will produce the show for the BBC, while Nicholls will be joined in the writing room by Moran and her sister Caroline, Big Boy’s Jack Rooke, and Dillon Mapletoft and Oliver Taylor, the team behind Everyone Else Burns.
Despite Mole first appearing four decades ago, the character’s influence continues to be felt. Townsend, who died in 2014, said the character “wouldn’t be using Twitter to memorialise his life” in the age of social media because “his thoughts and diary were very much private”.
The BBC’s director of drama, Lindsay Salt, said: “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole is one of those rare, seminal stories that has captivated generation after generation.
“David Nicholls has brilliantly distilled the wit, warmth and quiet poignancy of Sue Townsend’s iconic novel, reminding us why Adrian’s voice remains as sharply relevant today as it was in the 1980s.
“Times may have changed, but the anxieties, ambitions and wonderfully awkward truths at the heart of Adrian’s world are utterly timeless.”
