It feels like we’ve been waiting for years for the TV series of China Miéville stunning SF detective thriller The City And The City to get going and, at long last, it’s finally happening.
Digital Spy reports that David Morrissey (The Walking Dead, Red Riding) will be playing the lead role of Inspector Tyador Borlú in Tony Grisoni’s BBC Two adaptation, starring alongside Mandeep Dhillon (Some Girls), Danny Webb (Humans, Alien 3)and Ron Cook (Mr Selfridge). Tom Shankland (Luke Cage, The Missing, The Children) directs.
The story is set in the city of Besźel, which shares a contentious relationship with its twin city Ul Qoma, from which it is divided by, well, that’s a little difficult to explain. So when Borlú realises that the murdered girl he’s investigating doesn’t come from Besźel, but rather Ul Qoma, things get very complicated and sinister very quickly.
Fans of the book will tell you that there are certain elements that will be challenging to adapt, but we can’t wait to see how this creative team deals with the material. Filming is currently taking place in Liverpool and Manchester.
Miéville said that “It’s been fascinating and moving to witness the translation from fiction to script, and to work with Tony and Tom (Shankland) and everyone on this production. What they’re making feels both familiar, sending me right back to the book, and yet very much their own, something I’m eager to discover. I’m extremely impatient for it!”
“I am delighted to be working with the brilliant Tony Grisoni again on this exciting project,” added Morrisey. “I am a huge fan of the original book by China Miéville.”
Aren’t we all? How exciting is it that we’ll get to see our first China Miéville adaptation soon?
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