‘Bodyguard’ Producer World Productions Adapting “Chalk & Cheese’ Crime-Fighting Novel ‘Art Of Death’

Bodyguard producer World Productions is teeing up a “chalk-and-cheese” crime-fighting duo as it looks to build on the success of the BBC’s most successful new drama in a decade.

The ITV-owned company has optioned Art of Death by Charlie Bird, the pseudonym of Laurence Anholt and Paddy Magrane. The book begins when a famously narcissistic performance artist is found floating in a tank of formaldehyde at her own private view.

The subsequent murder investigation is lead by is DI Shanti Joyce, recently transferred from London to Yeovil following the collapse of her marriage and a case that went wrong. To help with the case, she tracks down Vince Caine, aka the Mindful Detective with the hope that her down-to-earth pragmatism and his intuition prove a winning combination.

World Productions is currently producing the latest season of BBC cop drama Line of Duty, recently produced The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco for BritBox and is making Hillsborough mini-series Anne for ITV.

Elsewhere, in the world of book-to-TV options, Fremantle-backed Duck Soup Films has optioned Holly Bourne’s YA novel Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? The book follows teenager Olive, who joins a summer camp called Camp Reset after finding herself in a dark place and comes up with a plan to put things right in the world.

The indie, which was founded by Jessica Holyland, Bekki Wray-Rogers and Libby Durdy in 2015, acquired the TV rights from Hayley Steed at Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency.

“We love the messages the book promotes; the need for kindness and empathy, space to be able to f*** up and not be eternally judged, patience and understanding whilst also trying to maintain self-awareness and take responsibility for our actions even those we feel we can’t control,” Holyland told The Bookseller. “Learning from all our experiences and not holding out for an all-encompassing ‘solution’ for our problems. Just trying to do the best we can and accepting who we are. Surely that’s all we can expect of each other.”