Sally Wainwright will Write and Direct Drama About Brontë Family

According to The Guardian, Sally Wainwright snagged the writing and directing gig for a new drama currently called To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters. It will be a two hour drama on the BBC. No casting news has been announced.

The film will center on the Brontë family: Charlotte (who wrote Jane Eyre), Emily (who wrote Wuthering Heights) and Anne (who wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall). Also in the story will be their troubled brother Branwell and their father. The eternally popular Brontë name will no doubt make this film a topic of great interest.

The script is apparently already written, because a spokeswoman for the BBC referred to it as brilliantly authentic. I don’t know how filming will affect Sally Wainwright’s schedule in creating new seasons of Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley, but I hope those projects proceed at a steady pace.

The film will be shot in Wainwright’s familiar territory of Yorkshire. She described the Brontë women as “three fascinating, talented, ingenious Yorkshire women.” There are quite a few fictional fascinating, talented and ingenious Yorkshire women among Wainwright’s writing credits, but the Brontës were real. I can’t wait to see what Wainwright does with them.

For Americans who love such British period dramas, here’s hoping the BBC finds a way to quickly export the film to the U.S. via PBS or Netflix or some other outlet.