Page-Turning TV: The Best TV Shows Based On Books

No long, lazy weekend afternoon is complete without a juicy book or a bingeable show, but you might be surprised to learn how many must-see TV series started life as must-read novels. Join us as we go from the page to the screen, running through some of the best shows on television that started out in print. Some will be familiar to you, while others may have literary origins you were never aware of! 

Big Little Lies

Reese Witherspoon has become a powerhouse in Hollywood as a producer, thanks largely to her ability to spot a book that is destined for adaptation. Having produced the book-based movies Gone Girl and Wild, she hit the TV jackpot with HBO’s Big Little Lies. Boasting an eye-popping cast of acting legends, including Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Witherspoon herself, it centred on five women in California who become implicated in a murder investigation. The miniseries is based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty, published just three years before the show aired – and showing how quickly a page-turner can become a ratings hit!

Dexter

Dark drama Dexter, about a crime scene investigator (Michael C Hall) who is secretly a serial killer, might seem like an original TV creation to the show’s millions of fans. Few realise that the show is actually based on a series of books by Jeff Lindsay, beginning with Darkly Dreaming Dexter. The author would go on to write seven more Dexter books, and although the TV show stuck closely to the source material in the first season, it eventually forged its own path. The books’ witty, sinister tone ultimately made for TV magic that keeps on giving, with sequel Dexter: New Blood having debuted in 2021, and a prequel series now in development. 

You

2024 marks the end of the compelling thriller show You, with the fifth and final season set to air late in the year. Penn Badgley plays Joe, a bookstore owner who becomes infatuated with writer Guinevere (Elizabeth Lail) and uses a variety of modern techniques to track and control her life. The series is based on a collection of novels by Caroline Kepnes, who is also a writer on the show, and although the TV version is largely true to the books, certain elements and tone have been changed – making it all the more tempting for fans to check out Kepnes’ original stories!

Little Fires Everywhere

Once again, producer/star Reese Witherspoon trains her keen eye on a compelling tale for this miniseries that – not everyone will be aware – began as a book by award-winning author Celeste Ng. In the show, Witherspoon stars as a woman whose life is turned upside down when she meets a single mother (Kerry Washington) harbouring hidden secrets. A thrilling, complex and intense tale about motherhood and morality, the show quickly became a word-of-mouth hit.

Sex and the City

This ‘90s comedy was one of the most successful shows ever made, and super-fans will be aware that the series about four female friends finding love and lust in Manhattan is, in fact, based on the writings of New York journalist Candace Bushnell, who penned a column called “Sex and the City” for The New York Observer in the mid-’90s. Her writings were later collected into a best-selling anthology, which in turn became the beloved TV show and movie sensation. The book itself differs from the show in that Bushnell’s characters are not featured as a cohesive friendship group, and in general the writing is more critical of the party-hardy lifestyle. Still, it provided the basis for a phenomenon that changed the Big Apple and its lore forever. 

Killing Eve

This British-American TV show about the enigmatic (and sometimes erotic) connection between an intelligence agent and a dangerous assassin made international stars of its leads Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. However, you may not know that the thriller finds its roots in book format. Codename Villanelle, by Luke Jennings, was first published as an e-book in 2017 – to mixed reviews. However, once it became the basis for the TV show written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Emerald Fennell, Jennings’ stories gained more notice. One of the reasons the link may not be as well known is that the show makes some big changes from the books, which, for instance, don’t feature Oh and Comer’s leads as lovers.

The Witcher

Most casual viewers would be forgiven for assuming that Henry Cavill-led fantasy show The Witcher is based on the hit video games. However, the show and the games are themselves adapted from a Polish book series written by Andrzej Sapkowski, which became a cult hit in the 1990s. Indeed, the show is more faithful to the early books than the games, depicting lead Geralt of Rivea (Cavill) as a younger man; in the games, he is older. Nevertheless, the show’s star was very aware of the connection, as Cavill reportedly brought Sapkowski’s books to set and became an authority on the tales.

The Handmaid’s Tale

As successful as the TV version of A Handmaid’s Tale is, writer Margaret Atwood’s original books were already a sensation well before the show was in production. Indeed, the book’s popularity put extra pressure on the series to do justice to the dystopian tale, which follows a woman living in a bleak theocratic future who is forced to be a concubine to a powerful couple. Happily, the well-written and superbly acted series proved just as popular, expanding on the feminist and authoritarian themes that made Atwood’s work so influential. 

Boardwalk Empire

With its retro crime and political wranglings, you might think the HBO hit Boardwalk Empire came straight from the imagination of producer/director Martin Scorsese. However, the award-winning show was based on the 2002 book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, which explored the life and transgressions of infamous New Jersey crime lord Enoch L Johnson (changed to ‘Nucky’ Thompson for the show). Hard-hitting and enthralling, the Prohibition-set drama forged a reputation for itself away from the printed page. 

Heartstopper

We’ve focused mainly on traditional books for this list, but one influential new show, released in 2022, is inspired by another form of literature. Heartstopper, the story of school student Charlie (Joe Locke) falling in love with classmate Nick (Kit Connor), is based on a web comic and subsequent graphic novel. The show stays faithful to the book given that the author, Alice Oseman, is also the creator and writer for the series. It’s been seen as a landmark in LGBTQ+ representation, taking the diverse stories that can come from the world of comics and launching them into the mainstream. 

True Blood

Lovers of the Southern-fried dark romance True Blood might assume that the show came out of the late 2000s vampire craze. However, the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her vampire lover Bill (Stephen Moyer) can be found in a story that predates the vampire lust. Charlaine Harris’ series The Southern Vampire Mysteries became the basis for the show, which remained faithful to the characters and early storylines at the beginning, but went in its own direction as the six-year, seven-season run continued. Upheld as a horror TV classic, many fans may still be unaware of its literary roots, with the book series concluding around the same time as its small-screen equivalent. 

Gentleman Jack

So far we’ve featured novels, memoirs, graphic novels and non-fiction books, but what about a show based on a diary? British series Gentleman Jack is based on the diaries of 19th-century landowner Anne Lister, considered one of the first notable examples of a gay woman living more or less openly in society. Her business exploits and romantic relationships were dramatised in this TV show starring Suranne Jones in the lead, which required transcribing a large portion of the estimated five million words in her diaries, much of which was written in secret code.

Bridgerton

Bridgerton, a steamy period drama following the lives and loves of aristocrats in an alternative Regency-era London, has undoubtedly been one of the biggest cultural successes of the last few years. And if you’re like us, you will have been on the edge of your seat waiting for the latest season to drop. Some, however, will already be aware of what has transpired, given that the series was based on author Julia Quinn’s line of successful books of the same name. Both the novels and the series gleefully play with historical accuracy to create a delightful fantasy worth exploring. 

Orange Is the New Black

Incredibly, some of the outlandish storylines that made up 2010s hit Orange Is the New Black had their basis in reality. Many may not realise that the show is based on a memoir: Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman. To the showrunners’ own admission, many of the happenings and characters in the story have been altered or entirely fictionalised, but it will still be a surprise to some that there was a real Piper (the character’s surname is changed in the show), who did go to jail for her involvement in a drug ring and was changed by her time on the inside. 

Sherlock

Of course, one of TV’s most successful adaptations is based on one of the most timeless book series in English literature. The BBC’s take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock novels keeps key aspects of the original Victorian stories, such as Sherlock’s residence at 221b Baker Street, the character of Dr Watson (Martin Freeman), and adversaries such as Moriarty (Andrew Scott). Benedict Cumberbatch’s title character, too, kept the eccentricities of the original Holmes, but these key elements were transported to a contemporary setting where Holmes and Watson use modern methods to solve modern crimes. The result is one of the most celebrated shows in recent TV history, and an adaptation that’s proven almost as popular as the books on which it’s based.