And so, the Young Adult summer takeover of television begins...
On Amazon Prime, we have My Lady Jane , in which notable Tudors intermittently turn into animals (it’s based on a 2016 YA adult novel by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows); and on BBC iPlayer, we have A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder , an adaptation of Holly Jackson’s 2019 bestseller of the same name. There will be hormones, frenemies and arguments about homework – and also a handy box set into which you may dive, the better to avoid Everything Else (you know what I mean by Everything Else). Watch alone, or with the marvellous young person in your life.
Either way, you’ll have a modicum of fun, if not a full-blown riot. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder , adapted by Poppy Cogan ( Red Rose , The Fold ) and directed by the estimable Dolly Wells, is set in a picture-postcard English village called Little Kilton and, to be honest, I’d quite like to move there, for the next six months at least. Maybe Leanne Fitz-Amobi (Anna Maxwell Martin), the droll and liberal-in-a-good-way mum of our heroine, Pip (Emma Myers), could adopt me.
It seems so idyllic: not only pretty, but harmoniously mixed in terms of race and class, and not a Lib Dem poster in sight. But of course, appearances are deceptive. Inky darkness pulsates beneath its dappled surface: think Midsomer Murders with fewer character actors, more mobile phones and a slightly more (well, just about) convincing plot.
Five years ago, a teenager called .
