The first book for “grown-ups” by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is to be adapted into a television series, the BBC announced Monday.
“The Casual Vacancy”, Rowling’s darkly comic novel set in a seemingly idyllic English village, was published in September and the TV version is set to air on the BBC’s flagship BBC One channel in 2014.
The 47-year-old’s series about the young wizard was adapted into eight blockbuster movies, but Rowling insisted that television was the best medium for an adaptation of her new book.
“I’m thrilled that the BBC has commissioned ‘The Casual Vacancy’,” Rowling said in a statement.
“I always felt that, if it were to be adapted, this novel was best suited to television and I think the BBC is the perfect home.” Published five years after the final instalment of Harry Potter, “The Casual Vacancy” is set in a world far from the wizarding school of Hogwarts, dealing with gritty subjects including rape, drug addiction and self-harm.
It tells the story of the fight to fill a slot on a village council after the incumbent’s sudden death, and hinges on the fate of a squalid housing estate.
