Jessica Brown Findlay Checks Into BBC One’s ‘Jamaica Inn’

By Nancy Tartaglione of Deadline.com
Former Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay will topline BBC One‘s three-part adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1936 gothic novel, Jamaica Inn. Emma Frost (The White Queen) wrote the adaptation that’s produced by Origin Pictures and directed by BAFTA winner Philippa Lowthorpe (Call The Midwife). Set in 1820s Cornwall, the story follows spirited Mary

Yellan (Brown Findlay), a young woman sent to live with her aunt (Joanne Whalley) after the death of her mother. When Mary arrives at the eerie, isolated Jamaica Inn, she finds her once carefree aunt is now firmly under the spell of domineering husband Joss (Sean Harris). The inn, it turns out, is a front for a smuggling ring. As Mary attempts to navigate her new surroundings, she falls for bad boy Jem (Matthew McNulty) and begins questioning her own morals and loyalties until an ultimate test reveals her true self. Ben Daniels and Shirley Henderson also star. Shooting starts this week in Cornwall, Yorkshire and Cumbria with a 2014 airdate to be confirmed.

Alfred Hitchcock made a feature version of the book in 1939 with Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara starring. A 1983 TV version starred Jane Seymour, Patrick McGoohan and Trevor Eve. This new BBC One take is produced by David Thompson and Dan Winch. Executive producers are Origin’s Ed Rubin and Hilary Heath and the BBC’s Sarah Stack and Screen Yorkshire’s Hugo Heppell. Brown Findlay is represented by London-based Troika, WME, and Management 360.

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