How many times have you heard that “the book is better than the TV series”? Nine times out of 10, they’re right – and I’m guilty of saying it (Prime Video’s Lord of the Courts it can’t compare to movies, never mind Tolkien’s epics). But every now and then, an author’s vision makes it to the small screen – and on rare occasions, it’s even better.
Here are nine of the best TV shows that live up to — or exceed — readers’ expectations.
Game of Thrones
Creators David Benioff and DB Weiss’ story went off the rails when they ran out of energy. Fire and Ice books to adapt after the fifth season. However, until then, Game of Thrones was a (mostly) faithful and complex take on George RR Martin’s saga of Westeros, weaving together a complex – but surprisingly complex – family of feuding families, skullduggery and, of course, dragons.
Calling Game of Thrones The global phenomenon could be a huge drop, and sales of the original series rose by nine million in the year the series first launched. If only Martin’s script could keep up with the pace of TV production, the ending wouldn’t have jumped the shark so much.
Stream on HBO Max
Ordinary People
Sally Rooney’s best-known story is so intimate yet so simple that, when you read it, it’s hard to imagine how it might translate to the small screen. But in 2020, playwrights Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe teamed up with Rooney to do just that, bringing Connell and Marianne’s love story to life with incredible depth.
What could have been a dull and unsettling show in the wrong hands became a must-see examination of the band, mental health and – above all – the irrefutable idea that love can conquer all. The 12-episode series not only became an international hit, but also made stars out of its two leads, Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones.
To stream on BBC iPlayer, Netflix and Disney +
One day
Readers of David Nicholls’ 2009 book were once burned by the first adaptation, when Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway (the latter with a British reputation) played the central couple, Emma and Dexter, in the dirty film of 2011. Fortunately, Netflix’s passing romance 13 years later was better than the movie, finding the spark that made the first book so interesting. Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod took on the roles of Dex and Em, bringing new excitement to their will or won’t they love story.
Streaming on Netflix
Slow horses
Jackson Lamb is not exactly your hero. He is written by writer Mick Herron as a bloke who rarely bathes, is always covered in crumbs and smells like “old garbage”. However, he is an intelligent agent of MI5 and fiercely protective of his unknown slow horses – a ragtag group of agents who reject what he oversees at their shabby headquarters, Slough House.
He is vividly brought to life by Sir Gary Oldman in Apple’s excellent spy series Herron, complete with thick hair and a messy coat. Slow horses it does not stop its production – there have been five units in just three years, and two more are already being produced. May it continue.
Streaming to Apple TV
Sex and the City
Candace Bushnell’s memoir of sorts began life as a newspaper column The New York Observeranonymously chronicled the sexual lives of three women in the town, before it was compiled into a best-selling book. Now synonymous with Fendi baguette bags, Manolo Blahnik shoes and having questionable taste in men (sorry Big), Carrie is a television icon, while Sex and the City it survives as one of the few exceptions to the “book is always better” rule.
After Carrie and her friends, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte in the trials and tribulations of trying to retire, the husband and their friendship six times said that the show can play the stories for a longer time than the book could – also, it’s better to see their clothes, instead of reading about them.
Stream on HBO Max
Sherlock
Updating historical fiction is always risky for TV producers, especially when the source material is as famous and respected as Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes. However, the BBC’s 2010 production was a hit, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch’s swashbuckling detective in modern-day London, with a brilliant Martin Freeman as his sidekick Dr John Watson.
Over 13 episodes the show – written by the dream team Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffatt – became an international phenomenon but has never lost focus on what made Conan Doyle’s character so great in the first place: his mind.
Stream on BBC iPlayer
Big Little Lies
Almost all of Liane Moriarty’s novels have been adapted for the small screen or have a series on the way, but David E Kelley’s 2017 version of Big Little Lies he is the one who started it all. Starring Hollywood big names like Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern and Nicole Kidman, the series was a sleazy, expensive-looking take on an existing thriller about a group of women with a murderous secret.
There have been many copycat series – and indeed books – since their success, but few (including Big Little Lies‘ the next amazing series in 2019) has come close to matching its incredible drama.
Stream on HBO Max
Wolf Hall
At 653 pages, Hilary Mantel’s drama about the life of Henry VIII’s right-hand man Thomas Cromwell is the main title. Fortunately, Bafta-winning author Peter Straughan had the patience to adapt the fictional life story, creating one of the best historical dramas to ever grace us.
Mark Rylance is amazing as Cromwell, playing him as a shrewd politician and a simple man who tries to keep his head from getting out of hand. After just one scene, you’ll soon realize just how dangerous Rylance’s Cromwell is – the crack of an eyebrow could mean certain death for one of his or Henry’s enemies.
Stream on BBC iPlayer
The Handmaid’s Tale
The images of red blankets and white bonnets in Margaret Atwood’s seminal dystopian novel are so unique, you’d think they would be easy to translate to the screen. But the Canadian author’s world-building is second to none, and this book has so much backstory and detail that it can get lost in the dreary details of the plot.
Somehow, this 2017 adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred is incredibly scary and beautifully crafted, and it managed to stay watchable long after the source material ended. Let’s hope that Atwood’s upcoming sequel, Testamentreaches the same height.
Coming to Disney+ on April 8
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