The Day of the Jackal

The commission comes after the spy thriller became Sky’s most watched original series in the UK. It launched on 14 November and drew 3 million viewers in its first week. It’s also been a global hit and sold to almost 200 territories.

Eddie Redmayne won plaudits for playing the elusive and highly-skilled assassin known as the Jackal, whose latest hit job puts himself in the crosshairs of an equally skilled British intelligence officer.

Brian Kirk speaks for a generation when he recalls watching The Day of the Jackal on TV as a child. “Even then, it felt genre-defining,” says the director. “It had this enormous manhunt with a sense of consequence and incredible plotting, great set-pieces, sustained tension. It felt like it was in the real world, with a real ticking clock, which left a big impression.”

Originally a novel by Frederick Forsyth, the TV series will be inspired by the novel and 1973 film adaptation.

The original drama will stay true to the novel and film, but further explore the tricky anti-hero at the heart of the story. 

The drama follows a professional assassin who is given a contract by a French dissident paramilitary organisation to kill the French president. 

A high stakes cat and mouse game will see the characters travel around the world in a geo-political landscape that represents our turbulent times.