Peter Carey’s Bliss to get series adaptation
Learn about the upcoming BBC Studios Australia series adaptation of Bliss, by Peter Carey.
THE FOREWORD
Yesterday, BBC Studios Australia Productions confirmed that Peter Carey’s Booker Prize-winning book Bliss is getting another on-screen adaptation!
First published in 1981, the novel has since won several accolades and been adapted for film.
Now, the book is being reimagined for the 2020s, ‘carrying with it the themes and intricacies of life that remain ever-present over 40 years on,’ says BBC Studios Australia. ‘Told from multiple perspectives, the series will explore the complexities of family, marriage, faith and identity in an era of rapid change.’
The series’s creator and writer, Tony Ayers, shares how the novel will be adapted for our current moment: ‘A contemporary version of BLISS will explore the highs and lows of the human condition, and the full range of acts between nobility and venality which we are capable of.’
Of the adaptation, BBC Studios Australia Productions, Kylie Washington says that the show aims to connect ‘long-time fans and new viewers’ while bringing Australian stories to the global stage.
‘I’m delighted that Tony Ayres and BBC Studios are adapting BLISS,’ says author Peter Carey. ‘I look forward to seeing how the story evolves for contemporary audiences while retaining its original spirit.’
About Bliss
Peter Carey’s first novel and first Miles Franklin winner, Bliss remains a work ahead of its time.
It takes dying during a heart attack for Harry Joy to realise that the life he thought was happy is actually hellish. His wife is a cheat, his kids are a source of shame, his company spruiks carcinogens. While Harry is resuscitated, he will never be the same, for having seen his own misery, he can no longer deny the injustice around him. But before he can be redeemed, a whole new perdition awaits him in this darkly funny and prescient fable about the idiocy of defiling nature.
