Noah Jupe, who is starring opposite Michael Douglas in the Apple TV+ Benjamin Franklin biopic, is leading a TV drama adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ cult classic Engleby.

Jupe will play the titular character, an enigmatic outsider who graduates from 1970s campus life to 1980s Fleet Street and beyond – haunted all the while by an unsolved mystery involving a friend and fellow student during their university days. The six-part drama is described as a “quintessential British murder mystery meets acute psychological character study, with a healthy dose of dark wit.”

Michael Keillor, who is directing the upcoming BBC/Netflix drama on the Lockerbie disaster, is directing, and Channel 4-backed production outfit Freedom Scripted is producing. No network is attached as of yet. Stage and screenwriters Ryan Craig (Filthy Business, Our Class, The Musketeers) and Jess Ruston (Geek Girl, Harlots, Young Wallander) are penning the series, with Freedom Scripted’s MD Mike Ellen executive producing. 

“True Crime can be compelling, but also at times exploitative and misleading,” said Ellen. “In Engleby which sprung from the brilliant mind of Sebastian Faulks, we tackle the reliability or otherwise of narration, and ultimately ‘make it up to tell the truth’ about a tragic set of very real feeling, fictional events.”

A decorated British author, Faulks is best known for his historical novels set in France such as The Girl at the Lion d’Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray.

Jupe has been in Cannes this week promoting Franklin alongside Douglas at the Canneseries event, where it airs out of competition tonight. A press conference took place earlier today.