The lives of literary greats The Bronte Sisters explored

Multi-award-winning writer Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango In Halifax) is to pen a new 1×120 drama for BBC One about the Bronte Sisters.

To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters, is an original perspective on the personal lives of the three sisters: Charlotte, Anne and Emily, and their increasingly difficult relationship with their brother Branwell, who in the last three years of his life – following a tragically misguided love affair – sank into alcoholism, drug addiction and appalling behaviour.

Sally Wainwright, says: “I am thrilled beyond measure that I’ve been asked by the BBC to bring to life these three fascinating, talented, ingenious Yorkshire women.”

Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC One, adds: “The Bronte sisters have always been enigmatic, but Sally Wainwright’s brilliantly authentic new BBC One drama brings the women behind some of our greatest literary masterpieces to life. It’s an extraordinary tale of family tragedy and their passion and determination, against the odds, to have their genius recognized in a male 19th-century world.”

To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters explores the siblings’ relationship not only with one another, but with their father, a clever and unusual man, who grew up in an impoverished home in rural Ireland, who educated himself, and who was happy to encourage his children – irrespective of their sex – to become passionate about literature and its possibilities.

Produced by BBC Wales, and directed by Wainwright, To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters, will film in and around Yorkshire with the casting announced in due course.