Jane Austen‘s final unfinished final novel, Sanditon, is developed as a lavish period epic for ITV in Britain and PBS Masterpiece in the U.S.
TV scribe Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice) is writing the eight-part series, with Tony Jordan’s “Hooten & The Lady” drama indie Red Planet Pictures on production duty.
Austen penned the first 11 chapters of Sanditon months before her death in 1817.
It follows Charlotte Heywood, a spirited and impulsive woman who moves from her rural home to Sanditon, a sleepy fishing village attempting to reinvent itself as a seaside resort.
Heywood’s spiky relationship with the humorous, charming Sidney Parker is a key part of the story, which has “a spirited young heroine, a couple of entrepreneurial brothers, some dodgy financial dealings, a West Indian heiress, and quite a bit of nude bathing,” said Davies.