adaptation

The story – first published in 1961 – will be adapted for TV by the writer Sarah Phelps, who has previously adapted Christie’s novels, And Then There Were None and The Witness For The Prosecution.

“The Pale Horse is a shivery, paranoid story about superstition, love gone wrong, guilt and grief. It’s about what we’re capable of when we’re desperate and what we believe when all the lights go out and we’re alone in the dark," says Sarah Phelps, who also serves as an executive producer.

Oscar-nominated Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Frank) and Bafta-winner Hettie MacDonald (Howard’s End) are on board to direct the 12-part BBC Three drama, with filming due to take place in Dublin, Sligo and Italy.

The modern love story has been adapted for the screen by Sally Rooney, alongside writers Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe.

Normal People follows the tender but complex relationship of popular and easy-going Connell and lonely and intimidating Marianne.

The series of the same name is set in the UK during the late 1850s and follows Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who tries to escape his past by signing up as a ship’s doctor for a whaling expedition in the Arctic.

On board the ship, Sumner encounters Henry Drax (Colin Farrell) the ship’s psychotic harpooner who’s developed an indifference towards killing.

Sumner’s attempts to flee the horrors of his past soon becomes a search for redemption, as he fights for survival in the Arctic.