Studio Crook acquires Lilly Valentine novel ‘Damaged Goods’ for TV adaptation

Matt Crook (Source: Studio Crook)

UK production company Studio Crook has acquired the rights to adapt Damaged Goods, the first novel in author Helen Black’s Lilly Valentine legal book series, into a TV series.

Valentine will be a 6 x 60-minute series following Lilly Valentine, “an (almost) divorced single mother on the wrong side of 40, with an ancient cottage that’s ‘only still standing through the power of hope’.” The character works at a local law firm and will go to any length to help her clients, at the expense of both her son and her nearly ex-husband.

Black, an ex-lawyer, became known for her crime novels based on her own experiences before turning to script writing including co-writing season two of Jimmy McGovern’s prison drama Time, which is currently airing on BBC One.

Damaged Goods is the third book title optioned by Studio Crook for TV, which having won investment from Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund earlier this year, is expanding into the scripted market.

Matt Crook, MD of Studio Crook, said, “Lilly Valentine is a force of nature, and from the first page of Damaged Goods we knew we had to bring her to the screen. It’s a pleasure to work with Helen Black on adapting her work, the series is just brilliantly entertaining, heartbreaking and universally relatable in equal measure which is exactly the type of story we want to tell.”