What about TV?

[Chief Super]

This is one of the questions Stephen gets asked most often! When are the books going to be made into a TV series? And which actors would play Cooper and Fry?

Stephen sold a TV option very early on, when BLACK DOG was first published. It went to a UK independent TV company called Meridian, who were taken over shortly afterwards by Granada... and then Granada were taken over by Carlton...  Cooper & Fry were one of the projects which quietly disappeared during the takeover process.

Since then, there's been interest in the series every year when a new book is released, but no one ever quite seems to get a project together. The interest comes not only from TV, but occasionally from Hollywood film producers (which Stephen thinks is mad!).

So one day we'll see Cooper & Fry on the screen, perhaps - but don't be holding your breath in the meantime!

As for the casting, well... take a look at the Virtual Casting Page on the website, and you'll see that everyone has a different idea for an actor to play Ben Cooper! Not to mention Diane Fry, and Gavin Murfin, too:

http://www.stephen-booth.com/casting.htm

[steelclaw32]

The interest comes not only from TV, but occasionally from Hollywood film producers (which Stephen thinks is mad!).

WHAT!!!? Hollywood?!   Stephen's right. I for one would absolutely hate it if that Hollywood lot got their grubby paws on Fry and Cooper.

Unless they did a : Harry Potter.! IE: ONLY British Actors, and set ONLY in the North, and preferable a British or Scotish even Welsh writers who KNOWS the English language.

At risk of being called racist, an Americanised Fry & Cooper is, to me, aberrant.

The reason American readers love F&C is because it IS British, and the Hollywood shower would take the plot (ONLY) and put it in an American context, and blow the whole thing completely.

The way that Stephen writes, there's a certain feel to it, a texture if you like,
a picture of poignancy, a sliver hope...or dread, there's an ephemeral as too a permanence properties, accomplishment or even attainment that sadly is waaaay over Hollywoods head and can not be replicated. Silk purse out of a sows ear comes to mind.

[steelclaw32]

I Also forgot to say look what Auntie Beeb did to Inspector Lynely Absolute crap. (pardon my French!)

Now ITV did a fairly good job on Morse, not so with The Midsomer Murders though.!

[glass half full]

I Also forgot to say look what Auntie Beeb did to Inspector Lynely Absolute crap. (pardon my French!)

Now ITV did a fairly good job on Morse, not so with The Midsomer Murders though.!

I have mixed feelings about televised versions of my favourite stories, as the television depictions rarely match my imagination. Ken Stott as Rebus, however, was perfect. Contrast that with John Hannah....

To be honest, because Ii have my own mental pictures of the characters, I would find it difficult to see them on TV but it does sometimes work.

[Chief Super]

No the actors will never quite match the pictures of Ben and Diane in our heads. I suppose we just have to accept that they're someone else's interpretation.