Post-war coming-of-age story set for BBC One

BBC One has commissioned a new two-part adaptation of, The Outcast, the best-selling novel from Sadie Jones who has also written the TV adaptation.

Starring George Mackay, Greg Wise, Hattie Morahan and Jessica Brown Findlay, the 90-minute episodes tell the story of a deeply romantic, uncomfortably honest coming-of-age story set in booming post-war Britain.

Lewis (George Mackay – Pride) is 10 years old when Elizabeth (Hattie Morahan – The Bletchley Circle) his beloved mother dies, leaving him alone with a father, Gilbert (Greg Wise – Sense And Sensibility), he barely knows after years away at war. When Gilbert remarries the fragile Alice (Jessica Brown Findlay – Jamaica Inn), ill-equipped for her new life, Lewis relies on his friendship with neighbouring children Tamsin and Kit (Daisy Bevan – The Two Faces Of January and Jessica Barden – Far From The Madding Crowd). But despite their own father Dicky (Nathaniel Parker – Stardust) not being all he seems, Tamsin and Kit negotiate a safe childhood whilst a grief-stricken Lewis sets about destroying his. All but abandoned by his father, events in Lewis’s teenage years begin to spiral out of control and take him further and further away from the help that he needs.

Christine Langan, Head of BBC Films, said: “The Outcast is a captivating and heart-breaking story of a young man’s desperate situation. I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to work with BBC One to bring a two-part adaptation to screen to retain the essence of Sadie Jones’s award-winning novel.”

Pete Czernin, Blueprint Pictures, said: “This is Blueprint’s first foray into television and we couldn’t think of a better novel to start our TV endeavours.”

Filming on The Outcast has started in Buckinghamshire for transmission in 2015.