"Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" and
"Downton Abbey" star
Lily James is set to star in the upcoming BBC One adaptation of
Nancy Mitford's 1945 novel
"The Pursuit of Love". The three-part comedy series will be directed and written by
Emily Mortimer.
"The Pursuit of Love" is the first book in a trilogy that tells the story of the Radletts, an upper-class English family between the First and Second World Wars, and it deals with issues of growing up and falling in love among the privileged and eccentric. The other books are titled
"Love in a Cold Climate" and
"Don't Tell Alfred".
James will star as Linda, the most beautiful and wayward Radlett daughter, who falls first for a stuffy Tory politician, then an ardent Communist, and finally a French duke named Fabrice. The story focuses on the friendship between Linda and her cousin Fanny Logan. Consumed by a desire for love and marriage, the two women are on the hunt for the ideal lover, but their friendship will be put to the test as Fanny settles for a steady life and Linda decides to follow her heart, to increasingly wild and outrageous places.
There have been two previous adaptations titled
"Love in a Cold Climate" based on the first two novels. The first is a 1980 Thames Television production starring
Judi Dench and
Lucy Gutteridge, and the other is a 2001 BBC One series directed by
Tom Hooper (
"Les Miserables",
"The King's Speech") that starred
Rosamund Pike and
Elisabeth Dermot Walsh.
Mortimer is also working on the script for a reboot of the classic British legal drama
"Rumpole of the Bailey", originally created by her father. She previously co-created, co-wrote and starred in the 2013 comedy series
"Doll & Em" alongside
Dolly Wells.
