It’s a good time to be a novelist if you dream of seeing your work on the small screen. So far this year, Showtime has picked up Ben Stiller’s adaptation of Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, Amazon Studios ordered a pilot from Jill Soloway based on Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick, and Europe’s Sky network announced plans to turn Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels into an eight-episode TV series. While we await the premieres of these shows—and the ensuing debates about whether the books were better—here are some of our favorite TV adaptations of all time.
1. Show Me A Hero (HBO, 2015)
Based on: Lisa Belkin, Show Me a Hero: A Tale of Murder, Suicide, Race, and Redemption (1999)
2.Wolf Hall (BBC, 2015)
Based on: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009) and Bringing Up the Bodies (2012)
3. Olive Kitteridge (HBO, 2014)
Based on: Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge (2008)
4.The Corner (HBO, 2000)
Based on: David Simon and Ed Burns, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (1997)
5. Sherlock (BBC, 2010)
Based on: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes, who first appears in A Study in Scarlet (1887)
6. I, Claudius (BBC, 1976)
Based on: Robert Graves, I, Claudius (1934)
7.Turn: Washington’s Spies (AMC, 2014)
Based on: Alexander Rose, Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring (2007)
8.The Forsyte Saga (ITV, 2002)
Based on: John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921)
9.The Leftovers (HBO, 2014)
Based on: Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers (2011)
10. House of Cards (Netflix, 2013)
Based on: Michael Dobbs, House of Cards (1990)
11. Mildred Pierce (HBO, 2011)
Based on: James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce (1941)
12. Poirot (ITV, 1989)
Based on: Agatha Christie’s character Hercule Poirot, who first appears in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
13. War & Peace (BBC, 2016)
Based on: Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869)
14. Jeeves and Wooster (ITV, 1990)
Based on: P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories and novels (1915–1974)
15. Brideshead Revisited (ITV, 1981)
Based on: Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1945)
