BBC Commissions 2 Epic Dramas – ‘The Three’ and ‘The Serpent’
BBC has announced the commissioning of 2 brand new epic 8-part drama series for BBC One today – ‘The Three‘, which is a multi-stranded, international thriller based on the trilogy of books by Sarah Lotz, and ‘The Serpent‘, based on the true story of how one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century was finally caught and brought to trial.
Based on the trilogy of books by Sarah Lotz and adapted by Golden Globe winner Peter Straughan (‘Wolf Hall’, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’) ‘The Three’ is a multi-stranded international thriller with a supernatural twist. Four planes crash on the same day in four different countries. Three children miraculously survive…
Elspeth Martin, a no-nonsense crash investigator with the NTSB in Washington, is under pressure to find out what caused the crashes. A rationalist, she is dogged in her determination to get at the truth, but this process is obstructed by conflicting evidence, media scrutiny, and conspiracy theories. Then there are rumours that a fourth child has survived one of the crashes, and a mysterious message is discovered on a passenger’s mobile phone…
“‘The Three’ looks at how fear and paranoia can affect society on a global level while interrogating the effects of trauma on ordinary lives,” comments Straughan. “Working on the project so far has been a fascinating journey, and I can’t wait to continue with our exciting team.”
‘The Serpent’, is a brand new original drama written by Richard Warlow (‘Ripper Street’) and based on the phenomenal true story of how one of the most elusive criminals of the 20th century was caught and brought to trial. The series will be directed by Tom Shankland (‘The Missing’) and produced by Mammoth Screen (‘Poldark’).
Con man, escape artist, thief, master of disguise and psychopath, Charles Sobhraj was the chief suspect in the sensational unsolved murders of up to 20 young Western travellers across India, Thailand, and Nepal through 1975 and 1976. Having slipped repeatedly from the grasp of authorities worldwide, by 1976 Sobhraj was Interpol’s most wanted man and had arrest warrants on three different continents.
When Herman Knippenberg, a junior diplomat at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, unwittingly walks into Sobhraj’s intricate web of crime, he sets off an extraordinary chain of events that will see these two diametrically opposed men engaged in a chase across the porous borders of the Asian Hippie Trail in its twilight years.
“I’ve been hoping for this news since Tom Shankland first told me the tale of Herman Knippenberg’s pursuit of Charles Sobhraj across the nexus points of the Hippie Trail,” says Warlow. “That the story happens to be entirely true is a gift. I don’t think I could ever invent the corrupt magnetism of Sobhraj’s evil charisma, nor the everyman decency with which Knippenberg – now our friend and collaborator – brought some measure of justice to those who went to seek new horizons but never returned.”
Both ‘The Three‘ and ‘The Serpent‘ will consist of 8 x 60min episodes.
