Wolf Hall heads to TV

Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall is to be turned into a costume drama by the man who brought John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to the big screen.

Peter Straughan, who co-wrote the script for the John Le Carré adaptation, will turn Mantel’s novel about the rise of Tudor politician Thomas Cromwell into a six-part series for the TV channel.

Making the announcement at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, channel director Janice Hadlow described the project as: “a great contemporary novel, a great adaptation”.

Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2009, follows the career of Henry VIII’s advisor Cromwell, a story continued in her follow-up book, Bring Up The Bodies. The BBC also has rights to the sequel, which is also longlisted for this year's Booker.

Production for the series is expected to start in late 2013.

Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel are published by Fourth Estate. Read about Hilary Mantel's rapturously received event at Hay Festival this year.