Hay Festival 2022

From the Old Testament to Captain Underpants, via Jane Austen and pulp fiction, the relationship between the page and the screen is unbreakable. But the journey from book to screenplay can be a long and winding road that is sometimes paved with gold, and often filled with detours and potholes.

To get under the skin of literary adaptations, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones decamped to the Hay literary festival where the book world’s biggest names gather to enjoy discussion and sharing ideas.

Cressida Cowell, author of the popular How To Train Your Dragon series, talks about the joyful process of seeing her characters come alive in a huge franchise comprising animated movies, TV series and a video game.

When her first novel Brick Lane was turned into a film in 2007, Monica Ali was not involved in the adaptation. Now, 15 years later, Monica is writing the screenplay of her latest novel Love Marriage and she talks to Mark and Ellen about the new skills she has learned along the way.

After many close calls with producers, Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Candy House) knows about the mercurial nature of having work ‘optioned’. She discusses her favourite literary adaptations and shares a cinematic piece of writing by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Also, broadcaster and writer Jeffrey Boakye takes a spin with an 80s classic movie to reveal the deeper issues at play in Dirty Dancing.

Producer: Freya Hellier A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4