A Fright In White

The latest BBC period drama is based on a Wilkie Collins detective story-cum-psychological thriller.

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Now that Jane Austen is pretty much tapped out, the BBC period drama department has turned its attention to the Victorian era and the works of Wilkie Collins, a friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens.

Collins’ 1868 story The Moonstone, considered the first modern detective novel, was adapted in 2016 and now his earlier work, The Woman in White (SoHo, Sky 010, Sunday, 8.30pm), is getting the treatment. It’s not for the first time, by any means.

The Woman in White was on the stage by 1860; there have been a number of films, some in the silent era; Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical in 2004; and The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln appeared in a previous BBC adaptation in 1997.