Oh, noooo. The D word. Surely not Donald? No, not that D word – the other one. The one that makes your heart sink a little, too. The one that reminds you of years of struggle. The one that tells of endless meetings with fellow campaigners in drab rooms, banging heads against brick walls.
The programmes explore both classic and contemporary fiction, from celebrated authors and those less well-known.
BBC’s regular book programmes such as The Radio Two Book Club with Jo Whiley, The Verb on BBC Radio Three, World Book Club on the World Service and Open Book on Radio Four will feature specials throughout the year.
A festival has also been set up in partnership with libraries and reading groups around the UK.
"You have to remember what a partisan of the novel I am… and that it had long been one of my ambitions to have my novels defeat all attempts to put them on screen"
-Interview with Jonathan Franzen, New York Times, 26 June 2018
Roald Dahl’s Most Marvellous Book, hosted by David Walliams, will see Stephen Spielberg, Julie Walters, Richard Curtis and a host of other stars make the case for their favourite Dahl books.
The show will also have a competitive element – after hearing from the celebrities, the public will be called to vote for their favourite Dahl book via Twitter, with the winner announced at the end of the show.
So, it’s a great story with great atmosphere, a range of colourful characters to whom lots of stuff happens and it's even a major bestseller, such as “The Casual Vacancy”. Is that it? Does it follow that great tv drama will ensue?
Does an epic novel automatically make for multi-series, unmissable TV? And do the rules change when the material is autobiographical and the author remains part of the process?
"I’d rather have internet than running water," declares Dan Snow, broadcaster, historian and self-confessed digital obsessive. Not content with making history programmes for broadcasters on subjects as diverse as China’s Terracotta Army and the D-Day landings, Snow is now building an online empire. His new tools are apps, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter (where he has a whopping 100,000 followers) and, most recently, Periscope, the Twitter-owned live video app.
