Helena Bonham Carter is set to star in Nick Hornby’s upcoming adaptation of Nina Stibbe's award-winning book Love, Nina, to be screened on BBC1.
The five-part drama is inspired by the young Stibbe’s move from Leicester to London in the 1980s and charts her time as a nanny for the two spirited sons of a literary author. Stibbe’s exploits as she tries to find her feet in one of the capital city’s most Bohemian streets are recalled in letters home to her sister.
Helena, who won a BAFTA for her role in hit 2010 movie The King’s Speech, will play Georgia, the ‘beautiful, forthright mother to Joe and Max’. She will be joined by Faye Marsay (The Bletchley Circle, Game of Thrones) who plays awestruck nanny Nina; fellow BAFTA winner Jason Watkins, who starred in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, as author Malcolm Tanner; and Josh McGuire, who appears as Nina’s on-off boyfriend Nunney.
"Nina Stibbe’s book has already established itself as a much-loved piece of comic writing and I love it," said Fever Pitch and High Fidelity author Hornby of his first adapted screenplay for television. "Her observations and world view were the inspiration for a show we think captures the same spirit. It’s been a joy to write and we’re thrilled with the quality of our cast."
Love, Nina, reunites Helena, 49, with SJ Clarkson, who directed her in Toast, the acclaimed 2010 adaptation of Nigel Slater’s memoirs. "It’s a joy to be working with Helena again," said Clarkson, "and even more so to be collaborating on such wonderful material and with such a talented ensemble".
Filming on Love, Nina begins in London this month.
