Yellow Bird UK & Hot Coals to adapt Nell Pattison crime trilogy

Banijay UK label Yellow Bird and Hot Coals Productions have partnered to develop and co-produce a drama series based on a trio of crime novels by author Nell Pattison.

The two companies will adapt The Silent House, Silent Night and The Silent Suspect for the screen, with screenwriter Glen Laker attached as showrunner.

Pattison’s novels follow British Sign Language interpreter Paige Northwood and her deaf sister as they solve crimes that happen within the deaf community. Pattison is herself partially deaf.

The TV deal was brokered by Kristina Moore at United Talent Agency on behalf of Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment.

“This is an incredibly important and exciting project for us, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Clare-Louise and Jo at Hot Coals,” said Berna Levin, creative director at Yellow Bird UK. “With the deaf community at the heart of these books, it will allow us to bring underrepresented talent in the TV industry to the forefront – both in front and behind the scenes.”

Clare-Louise English and Jo Sargeant, from Hot Coals Productions, added: “So often on TV and film, a deaf character is parachuted into a hearing story, with no other deaf people around them. With these stories set firmly within the deaf community it gives us an opportunity to show the breadth of deafness and the huge variation in lived experiences. From the moment we read Nell’s books, we knew we had to make them into a TV series and we are so excited to be partnering with Yellow Bird who understand the importance of representation.”

Yellow Bird recently secured rights to Alex Schulman’s novel, The Survivors, with plans to adapt it into a feature film and in August hired Red Arrow Studio’s Sally Rowberry as development producer and Heyday Television’s Nimai Inniss as development executive as part of a development push for the firm.