Up with the Lark
French to star in period drama
Dawn French is to star in a new period drama that BBC One hopes will revive its Sunday night ratings.She will play the lead in an adaptation of the bucolic literary trilogy Lark Rise To Candleford, about life in three English hamlets in the 1880s.
The books were loosely based on the life of their author, Flora Thompson, and were first published during the Second World War.
The series will run over ten weeks at 8pm, according to trade magazine Broadcast, and there are plans for it to be developed into a recurring series, as ITV did with H E Bates' novel The Darling Buds of May.
French has been a reliable ratings-winner for the BBC, with the finale of The Vicar of Dibley attracting more than 12 million viewers last year.
Published: 7 Jun 2007
