MovieChat Forums > A Touch of Frost (2010) Discussion > Why were the the final Two R.D Wingfield...

Why were the the final Two R.D Wingfield Books not adapted?

posted 13 years ago by thomas-bain1
2 replies | jump to latest

Having read the all of R.D Wingfields novels on Frost and seen all of the David Jason episodes, it surprise's me that the final two books were not adapted for television. Now considering that they are dark installments,much darker than the previous novels it wouldn't surprise me if the producers and writers couldn't find a way to lighten them, but it just seems odd that they didn't adapt them, especially since, by the time Winter Frost had come out, they were doing Two part specials, and it would have been a perfect excuse to do it justice!

But it bugs me that i can't find a reason why anywhere!

[–] Jaycicle 12 years ago

Allegedly, it was due to R.D. Wingfield hating the changes they made and not wanting to work with the production team further.

[–] pablo-taylor 12 years ago

That being the case I'd imagine that the fourth book wouldn't have been adapted either, since it was written well after the television series started and, I'd have thought ITV would have had the automatic option to adapt any new books (while their rights were current) whether the author liked the results or not - Ian Rankin was caught in a similar trap with the Ken Stott version of 'Rebus', even going so far as to delay publication of his latest book until he was clear of the network's grasp. Besides, parts of 'Winter Frost' were clearly the inspiration for several of the Season 10 episodes and the final book was really published too late to have been considered for adaptation.

As such, I'd say it was more a question of timing and that by the time of the last two novels, the television version had developed an identity of it's own that was very different from the one created by Wingfield.