BBC Greenlights ‘Ladies’ Paradise’ Series Based On Emile Zola Novel

BBC One is moving ahead with The Ladies’ Paradise, an eight-episode series loosely based on Emile Zola’s novel Au Bonheur Des Dames. Set in England’s first department store, the series tells the rags-to-riches story of Denise Lovett (Joanna Vanderham, Above Suspicion), a young girl who works in the store and gets caught up in the charms of the modern world. Denise is a 19th-century Working Girl – big-hearted, smarter than she’s taken to be and more ambitious than those pretty eyes suggest. BBC One put the series on the fast track a year ago with the hire of Bill Gallagher (Lark Rise) to write it. Marc Jobst is set to direct. Vanderham is with WME.

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