Show and tell
The season’s festive (and a bit of very non-festive) viewing
THE ONE YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO SEE IS… THE MINIATURIST Jessie Burton first started writing her modern literary classic The Miniaturist in 2009. ‘I don’t think I wrote the book with it as a TV experience in mind,’ she says now. ‘But let’s just say that when it got optioned, I wasn’t reluctant about the idea.’ Her debut novel, a million-plus seller around the world, is the tale of Nella (Anya Taylor-joy), an 18-yearold woman sent into a marriage in 17thcentury Amsterdam who builds a spookily prophetic world in a doll’s house gifted by her new husband, Johannes (Alex Hassell).
Jessie’s compelling, dark tale has just been turned into the jewel in the crown of the BBC’S Christmas schedule. ‘My mum and dad always get the Christmas Radio
Times,’ she laughs, ‘so it will be quite mental seeing them put a star next to it. It’s such an honour to be part of the Christmas package.’
She didn’t spend too much time fretting about handing her baby over to a fresh set of storytelling eyes: ‘It wasn’t hard to put my trust in them. The producer understood the story’s darker side, its oddly modernistic quality, even though it’s a historical novel. And besides anything else, they’re much better at doing their jobs than I am.’
Jessie has some previous form with TV and was a jobbing actress when she began writing the book. By the time casting – which includes Romola Garai as Nella’s new sister-in-law – was complete, she could even begin to enjoy the process. ‘I went down to visit a few sets,’ she says, ‘which was incredibly exciting. Romola really is the best of the best. She’s so gracious, intelligent and composed in it.’
Looking back on the original writing process of her mesmerising masterwork, Jessie can see some of her unspoken inspiration for writing The Miniaturist. ‘ When you’re an actress, there’s a lot of waiting about. You feel powerless, waiting for the phone to ring. It’s such an up and down life and the act of writing is completely empowering. All you need is a pen and paper.’ There is one particularly pleasing aspect to watching her creation come magically to life for the author. ‘I can see now that what I was doing, to a certain extent, was writing a book full of really good parts for women.’
SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EDITION