Sarah Waters has one of the most adapted back catalogues in modern fiction — every one of her novels has reached the screen except one. That changes now.
BBC Studios Fiction has optioned The Paying Guests, the 2014 novel about a 1922 love affair that turns into a crime thriller, Deadline reports. Kayleigh Llewellyn, the writer behind In My Skin and Killing Eve, is attached to adapt it as a series. No network or streamer is attached at this stage.
The 1922 Love Affair at the Story’s Core
The Paying Guests is set in London in 1922. Frances Wray and her mother take in married lodgers Lilian and Leonard Barber.
What starts as a secret, intoxicating love affair between Frances and Lilian spirals into something darker. The official logline describes it as a “twisting crime thriller, culminating in a brutal murder and a nail-biting court case.”
Waters published the novel in 2014, and it has remained the single unadapted entry in her canon ever since.
Waters’ Long Screen History
Waters has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize For Fiction, and her books have been adapted repeatedly for British television and film.
Previous adaptations include the BBC series Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, Andrew Davies’ Affinity, the BBC telemovie The Night Watch, and Lenny Abrahamson’s feature The Little Stranger.
Fingersmith also inspired Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden.
Waters is one of the most adapted authors working today, with a body of work that has travelled across television and cinema for two decades.
Kayleigh Llewellyn’s Track Record
Kayleigh Llewellyn’s credits include In My Skin and Killing Eve.
She is currently writing the upcoming BBC series The Dream Lands.
Llewellyn brings experience across both dark comedy and crime drama, having worked on series that blend personal stakes with larger narrative tensions.
The New BBC Studios Fiction Label
The adaptation joins a growing slate at BBC Studios Fiction, the label created last year.
Josh Cole runs the label as Chief Creative Officer, having previously been the BBC Studios Comedy Productions boss.
BBC Studios Fiction sits alongside BBC Studios Drama Productions, which handles long-running returning series such as Casualty and Silent Witness.
The new label’s upcoming slate includes the third season of Jimmy McGovern’s drama Time, which is set in a Young Offenders Institution and stars David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran.
Development Status and Key Details
The project is in early development. No broadcaster or streamer has picked it up yet.
The option deal means BBC Studios Fiction controls the rights to develop the series, but the project still needs a commissioning partner before it can move forward.
For now, the key facts are simple: a major novel, a proven writer, and a studio label expanding its slate.
Key facts box:
- Novel: The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
- Publication year: 2014
- Setting: London, 1922
- Writer attached: Kayleigh Llewellyn
- Production label: BBC Studios Fiction
- Network/streamer: None attached at this stage
Adaptation history:
| Novel | Adaptation | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Tipping the Velvet | BBC series | TV |
| Fingersmith | BBC series | TV |
| Affinity | Andrew Davies | TV |
| The Night Watch | BBC telemovie | TV |
| The Little Stranger | Lenny Abrahamson | Film |
Fans of Waters have waited over a decade to see The Paying Guests on screen. The wait now has an end in sight.
Source: deadline.com
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