Boyd's Restless for TV

Casting has been announced for Endor Production’s television adaptation of William Boyd’s Restless. Restless will be directed by Edward hall (Spooks MI5), with the script also written by William Boyd.

Stars include Hayley Atwell (Any Human Heart, Captain America), Rufus Sewell (Pillars of Earth), Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey), and veterans Michael Gambon and Charlotte Rampling. The Costa Award-winning novel will be turned into two 90-minute episodes.

Restless follows the story of Sally Gilmartin (Rampling) as her daughter, Ruth Gilmartin (Dockery) discovers, in 1976, that Sally has been living a double life as a spy for the British Secret Service. Sally’s real name is Eva Delectorskaya and she has been on the run for 30 years.

As a young woman, Eva’s (Atwell) story begins in France in 1939 where she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer (Sewell). Romer trains Eva to become the perfect spy and a love affair between the two blossoms. However, when a crucial mission collapses in America, Eva finds herself in life threatening jeopardy thus forcing her to hide and begin her double life. Thirty years on, Sally yearns to end her years of living a lie.

Boyd, whose writing about spies will include the new James Bond novel, said that, "[a television adaptation of Restless] represents the most enticing and alluring of possiblities." Director Richard Hall added, "Restless [is] an extraordinary expression of what major British drama can achieve through the medium television."

Restless will air on BBC One in late 2012.