Dennis Potter’s adaptation of The White Hotel to air on Radio 4
Anne-Marie Duff will star in the adaptation of the DM Thomas novel.
Dennis Potter’s script for The White Hotel, which he penned nearly 30 years ago, is finally making it on air.
Anne-Marie Duff will star in the Radio 4 adaptation of the 1981 DM Thomas novel.
The book never quite made it to the big screen, despite attempts by many directors over the years, including Bernardo Bertolucci and David Lynch.
Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Isabella Rossellini, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Fiennes have all been linked to various film adaptations.
Like other attempts, Potter’s screenplay for the Booker Prize-nominated novel did not make it on to the big screen, with directors finding it difficult to adapt the plot.
The Radio 4 drama will also star Bill Paterson, Simon McBurney, David Gyasi, Nigel Lindsay and Morwenna Banks.
The drama will centre on a woman, played by Duff, who visits a Freudian sexual analyst to discover the cause of her pain and delves into her past.
Jon Amiel, who worked with the late screenwriter Potter on his TV drama The Singing Detective, will be directing the adaptation.
He said: “I read The White Hotel when it first came out and nearly 30 years later it still haunts me.
“As much as this is an adaptation of a DM Thomas novel, Dennis’s voice is so alive in this script and his personality is all through it. It’s a rather magical feeling for me to be so close to my old friend again.”
Jeremy Howe, Radio 4 commissioning editor for drama, said: “DM Thomas’ The White Hotel is an extraordinary book that elicited one of the finest screenplays from the legendary Dennis Potter.
“It is a disturbing, upsetting, heart-rending and sometimes shocking tale of pre-Second World War central Europe. It is a brilliant screenplay of a novel that shouts out to be made. I am delighted that Radio 4 has been able to make it.”
