BBC commissions Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time

The BBC has commissioned "The Ministry of Time", based on Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel of the same name, which was touted as one of the "books of the fair" at last year’s London Book Fair. 

The drama was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, and is adapted by Alice Birch (“Normal People”). It is executive produced by A24, Birch and Jo McClellan for the BBC. The six-part series will be distributed internationally by A24. 

The book was acquired by Sceptre in a 48-hour pre-empt in 2023. It will be published on 14th May 2024.  

“The Ministry of Time, a newly established government department, is gathering ‘expats’ from across history in an experiment to test the viability of time-travel," the synopsis says. "Commander Graham Gore (an officer on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 Arctic expedition) is one such figure rescued from certain death – alongside an army captain from the fields of the Somme, a plague victim from the 1600s, a widow from revolutionary France, and a soldier from the 17th Century. 

"The expats are placed with 21st-Century liaisons, known as ’bridges’, in unlikely flatshares. Gore has to learn about contemporary life from scratch: from air travel to industrial warfare, from feminism to Spotify, from cinema to indoor plumbing; and he must negotiate cohabiting with the ambitious modern woman who works as his bridge. After an awkward beginning, the pair start to find pleasure and comfort in each other’s company, developing a relationship that is simultaneously tender, intense and profoundly unprofessional; and the expats, adrift in a new era, form friendships that ground and support them in the lonely 21st Century, where they have outlived everyone they ever knew and loved. 

"When a deeper conspiracy at the ministry begins to reveal itself, the bridge must reckon with what she does next. Will she save or sacrifice the exiled misfits she has come to care for so deeply?"

Bradley said: "I could not be more excited for The Ministry of Time to find a new home on screen, with the dream-come-true combination of A24, the BBC and brilliant Alice Birch. I’m sure Graham Gore would have been delighted too, once someone had explained to him what all that meant." 

Birch added: “I’m so thrilled to be adapting Kaliane’s beautiful, funny, joyful, moving, intelligent book with the BBC and A24. Reading it was an exhilarating, thrilling and heartbreaking experience and I’m so excited to bring this story to the screen.” 

Read The Bookseller’s interview with Bradley here.