The life-affirming story of family, love and being true to yourself was widely acclaimed for its trailblazing depiction of homosexuality in Britain's elder Caribbean community.

Lennie James will star as the flamboyant and retro-suited Barrington Jedidiah Walker, or Esq. Barry to his friends. He said: "I can't wait to get Barrington's swagger on and help tell this crucial and complicated love story. As funny as it is sad. As full of heart as it is heartache..."

Barry, who was born and bred in Antigua, is now seventy years old and lives in Hackney, where he is trouble to his wife, his daughters and his lover.

Carmel, his wife of 50 years, senses that Barry has been cheating on her with other women, but in reality he has been having a secret, decades-long passionate affair with his best friend and soulmate, Morris.

The series follows Barry as he faces up to the big decisions he has to make, ones that will also force his family to question their own futures.

Evaristo said: “I am thrilled that Mr Loverman is being adapted into television drama. I love the idea of them stepping beyond the pages of the novel and into people’s living rooms and lives.”

Nathaniel Price, who has previously adapted Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses series for the BBC, has written the eight parts and paid homage to the original book. "From the moment I read Mr Loverman," he says, "I fell in love with Barry, Morris, Carmel and the entire Walker family. Bernardine’s novel is not only a beautiful, truthful story, full deeply human characters, it is a vitally important one.

"It is unflinching in its challenge of cultural myths and stereotypes, and an exhibition of just how deep and far-reaching the consequences of prejudice and fear can be.

Filming for Mr Loverman will begin later in 2023 and will be directed by Hong Khaou (Baptiste). Further casting will be announced in due course.