Deals Closed On Mark Gatiss’ UKTV & PBS Series ‘Bookish’; Beta Film Seals Presales & Unveils London TV Screenings Lineup

Stewart Clarke

18 February 2025 at 6:30 am·2-min read

EXCLUSIVE: International buyers have gone big on Bookish. The quirky series was created by and stars Mark Gatiss. It been sold into a handful of territories ahead of its launch on UKTV in the UK and PBS in the U.S.

Beta Film is across distribution. It has booked presales with BBC First for Benelux, AMC Networks for Latin America, TRT in Turkey and HRT in Croatia. Further deals are in the works.

More from Deadline

Gatiss plays eccentric but whip-smart bookshop owner Gabriel Book in Bookish, which is produced by Eagle Eye and Happy Duck Films. A former spy, Book now helps the police solve their knottiest murder cases. He is married to Trottie, who owns the wallpaper shop next door. But is a relationship of convenience given Book is a gay man and the drama is set in late 1940s London, a time when homosexuality was illegal.

The cast includes Bridgerton star Polly Walker, Connor Finch (Everything I Know About Love), Joely Richardson (The Gentleman), Daniel Mays (Code 404), and Jonas Nay (Deutschland 83).

Beta’s deals come ahead of the London TV Screenings next week, where it will give Bookish a further international push at its event at Picturehouse Central.

Deadline has been given an advance glimpse at its other key titles for London, which is now a key fixture in the international TV calendar. There’s a spread of premium European drama on the Beta slate.

Other People’s Money will be a priority. The tax-fraud drama from Jan Schomburg has its international premiere later this week at the Berlinale, where it plays in the Panorama section. It is produced by X Filme Creative Pool and True Content Entertainment as a co-production with EPO- Film, ZDF and DR and New8, bringing together a host of Europe’s big hitters.

Spanish thriller Shades, headlined by Fast & Furious star Elsa Pataky, is also on the London list. The Secuoya Studios and Stellarmedia-produced murder-mystery series is for Euro streamer SkyShowtime.

Unforgettable – Memories of Revenge, meanwhile, is another of the big Screenings launches. The French remake of the hit Turkish drama Persona follows a retired clerk who is out for revenge on criminals who have evaded the law. She is, however, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which complicates matters somewhat.

The Beta Film event is on the Tuesday of the London Screenings.

Best of Deadline