Developing The Outcast with Sadie Jones

Beth Pattinson, development executive at BBC Films talks to Sadie Jones, screenwriter and novelist, ahead of the debut of her two-part drama, The Outcast, on BBC One.

Sadie details her journey as an unproduced screenwriter to novelist and back. The Outcast began as a feature film script but when producers were unable to make it the way they wanted to Sadie turned the story into a novel.

Within a year, the book was published to wide critical acclaim and won the Costa First Novel Award. It was also a finalist for the prestigious Orange Prize, as well as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction.

When Christine Langan, Head of BBC Films, read the novel, she knew it had to be brought to the screen. Blueprint Pictures came on board to develop the novel with BBC Films as a feature film, but it proved too difficult to adapt the story into a 120 minute feature. BBC Drama then came on board and the story was split into a two-part drama for television.

Beth and Sadie recount the development process, structuring the story across mediums, defying the odds and never giving up.

The Outcast stars George Mackay, Greg Wise, Jessica Barden, Hattie Morahan, and Jessica Brown Findlay in what has been decribed as a deeply romantic, uncomfortably honest coming-of-age story set in booming post-war Britain.