‘Harlots’ Producer Monumental Television To Adapt ML Longworth’s ‘Verlaque & Bonnet’ Novels Into TV Series

EXCLUSIVE: Monumental Television, the UK producer behind Harlots and Ghosts, is set to adapt ML Longworth’s crime novels into a television series.

Deadline understands that Monumental is in advanced development on the series, which is currently titled Murder In Provence and draws on Longworth’s Verlaque & Bonnet stories, set in the south of France. We hear that Shelagh Stephenson, whose credits include Downton Abbey and Shirley, is attached to write three episodes of the crime series.

Canadian author Longworth has written eight Verlaque & Bonnet novels, the first of which is Aix-en-Provence-set Death at the Château. It centers on Antoine Verlaque, the handsome chief magistrate of Aix, and his on-again, off-again love interest, law professor Marine Bonnet. They team to unravel the mysterious case of local nobleman Etienne de Bremont, who falls to his death from his family château.

Monumental Television is run by Oscar-nominated producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward. The company made Hulu’s Harlots before it was canceled last year, while its popular BBC comedy Ghosts is returning for a third season. Monumental is 51% owned by ITV Studios.