Eagle Eye Drama has acquired the rights to The Great Dictator, the biography of Dame Barbara Cartland by historian, novelist and screenwriter Matthew Sweet.
The ITV Studios-owned scripted production company behind multi-season hit shows Bookish (Mark Gatiss’ post-war detective series for U&Alibi), Patience (C4), Ben Miller’s Professor T (ITV), The Couple Next Door (C4) and ITV’s forthcoming Richard Armitage crime series Winter secured the rights to the book, which has received a slew of rave reviews since its publication earlier in September.
The book has been hailed as ‘Excellent, compassionate’ (The Guardian), ‘Fantastically enjoyable, drily hilarious’ (Literary Review), ‘A beautifully crafted gem’ (The Times) and has attracted wide praise from celebrities and cultural commentators: ‘Matthew Sweet has given the life-story of this icon of chiffon-and-pearls the telling it deserves – wry, affectionate, and very readable.’ (Louis Theroux)
Published by Hodder & Stoughton earlier in September, the book is the result of years of meticulous research into the life of one of the UK’s biggest selling novelists of all time, the iconic Woman in Pink who turned romance into big business, selling close to a billion copies of her novels in 38 languages.
Eagle Eye Drama CEO Walter Iuzzolino said, ‘Barbara Cartland is one of the most recognizable English public figures of the 20th Century. Born in 1901, Cartland was a fixture of British society for nearly a hundred years, rubbing shoulders with press barons, politicians, the aristocracy, and of course the Royal Family. Matthew Sweet gained unparalleled access to the Cartland family archives, and what he has uncovered is a story more compelling and unbelievable than her most outlandish plots – which will provide a wonderful bedrock to build an unmissable scripted series’.
Eagle Eye CCO Jo McGrath added, ‘The third bestselling author in history behind only Shakespeare and Christie, Cartland was an indefatigable wordsmith knocking out 23 books a year. Known for her outlandish pink chiffon clothes and thick Meltonian black shoe cream mascara, she is a figure who has been loved and scorned in equal measure. She was a ferocious champion of romantic love with a less than idyllic and rather scandalous love life of her own. A friend of Winston Churchill, she dined with Margaret Thatcher (to whom she prescribed alternative remedies and oxygen supplements) and of course the step-grandmother to Princess Diana, who loved her books as a young woman. Cartland is a rivetingly complex kaleidoscope of contradictions, a gift of a role for a great actress.’
The Great Dictator writer Matthew Sweet commented, ‘I feel like I’ve been caught up in a pink chiffon whirlwind in the last few days, with the reviews and the Baillie Gifford longlist. Now Eagle Eye Drama have acquired the rights to bring The Great Dictator to television. They are the perfect producers – they seem to have as much energy as Barbara. Maybe they also take 90 vitamin pills a day!’
Tom Perrin, Editorial Consultant, Hodder & Stoughton, said, ‘We have all been thrilled at Hodder & Stoughton to publish Matthew Sweet’s brilliant biography of Barbara Cartland, The Great Dictator. The book has been a runaway success for us since publication, published to rave reviews from critics, readers and booksellers alike. Most excitingly it has already been longlisted for the prestigious Baillie Gifford prize. We are delighted that Eagle Eye have acquired the screen rights and look forward to working with them and Matthew.’
