Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers Of London novels are heading to the small screen at last, and details have landed.
Writer Ben Aaronovitch came to prominence to many of us for writing two two seminal Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who stories – Remembrance Of The Daleks and Battlefield. These were in the late 1980s, under the stewardship of script editor Andrew Cartmel. Incidentally, if you want to know what the day to day process of creating this era of Doctor Who was like, Cartmel’s book Script Doctor, a collection of diary excerpts chronicling his time on the show, is well worth reading.
Post-Doctor Who, Ben Aaronovitch struck gold with novels. In 2011, he wrote Rivers Of London, the first in what would become a phenomenally successful, bestselling fantasy series.
The synopsis for that first book reads as follows:
Rivers of London follows a young officer in London’s Met Police, Peter Grant. After working on a murder case with a witness who happens to be a ghost, he is signed up to a unit on the force dedicated to magic and the supernatural. Subsequent cases take in gods and goddesses, magic and many forms of supernatural activity.
An adaptation has been formally in the works since 2019 (albeit with previous near-misses), with various creatives, including at one stage Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, attached. According to Deadline, it is finally moving towards production with Sky Studios and Pure Fiction. Aaronovitch himself is onboard as an executive producer through his company Unnecessary Logo.
Several screenwriters and stage writers have been assembled for a United States-style writers room, including John Jackson, whose credits include The Gentleman, as the lead writer. Tobi King Bakare, whose on-screen credits include I May Destroy You, also took part, as did Kara Smith (Lockwood & Co), Joshua St Johnson (Grantchester), Tolula Dada (Gangs Of London), and Robin French (Sanditon).
There are currently 14 books in the series. Aaronovitch’s most recent release – a collection of four novellas called The Masquerades Of Spring – was published in September. You can read more about the series on Aaronovitch’s official website
