Showtime Developing Biotech Marital Thriller Drama ‘Chemistry’ Based On British Miniseries ‘The Politician’s Husband’

Showtime has put in development Chemistry, a drama based on Paula Milne’s BBC miniseries The Politician’s Husband, from Anonymous Content, original series’ producer Daybreak Pictures/Passion Distribution and Sony Pictures TV’s TriStar Television.

Adapted by David Manson (House of Cards), Chemistry is a psycho-sexual marital thriller set in the high stakes world of biotech, focusing on alpha spouses at the head of an emerging firm on the cusp of a life altering discovery. This tense and timely piece takes place in the bedroom and the boardroom, exploring the dramatic power shift that begins to occur when the wife’s career begins to eclipse that of the husband.

Manson and Milne executive produce with Anonymous Content’s Nicole Clemens and Jeff Okin, and Daybreak Pictures/Passion Distribution’s David Aukin and Hal Vogel for TriStar TV and Showtime.

The three-episode The Politician’s Husband miniseries, starring David Tennant and Emily Watson as a high-flying golden political couple, aired on BBC Two in 2013. (You can watch a trailer below) It is a follow-up to Milne’s BAFTA, International Emmy and Peabody Award-winning 1995 mini The Politician’s Wife, about the wife of a disgraced politician.

“It was originally set in politics; we’re setting it in biotech because there’s a surplus of political shows out there,”  TriStar TV head Suzanne Patmore Gibbs said of the adaptation in November. “What really attracted us to it was, it is really focused on these alpha spouses that are both in positions of power at this company and what happens in the bedroom and the boardroom when this power shift takes place and the wife’s career begins to vastly eclipse that of the husband, and how that changes their relationship in a really integral way. It’s really zeitgeist-y or just pertinent right now in that it’s exploring gender politics.”

She noted at the time that “Milne and David know each other, so they’re going to hopefully collaborate in some way on this version.”

Manson, who also worked on Netflix/Sony TV’s Bloodline, is repped by CAA and attorney Jennifer Levy.