BBC and PBS bring Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen to television viewers

Television viewers in the U.S. who were pleased to learn that the BBC's "Sherlock" will soon be telecast here on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) should be even more delighted that a second mystery series will be acquired through that arrangement.  Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series, featuring a contemporary Italian police detective, will come to the small screen in three feature-length dramas. In the U.S., it will become part of the PBS Masterpiece programming.

Rufus Sewell and Rachel Young in screencap from "The Eleventh
Hour" (CBS).

Michael Dibdin, who died in 2007, received the Gold Dagger Award, given by the Crime Writers Association for the best novel of the year, for the first novel in his Aurelio Zen series, Ratking (1988). Dibdin's other Aurelio Zen series titles include Vendetta (1990),  Cabal (1992), Dead Lagoon (1994, Cosi Fan Tutti (1996), A Long Finish (1998), Blood Rain (1999), And Then You Die (2002), Medusa (2003), Back to Bologna (2005) and End Games (2007).

British actor Rufus Sewell will appear as Aurelio Zen. Sewell played Will Ladislaw in the 1994 Masterpiece Theater production of "Middlemarch" and more recently starred as Dr. Jacob Hood in the CBS drama "The Eleventh Hour."

A BBC press release quotes Sewell as saying, "I'm thrilled to be a part of this project with the opportunity to play such an intriguing, complex and likable character." Andy Harries, Chief Executive Of Left Bank Pictures, which will produce the films, added, "The Dibdin novels are much loved and they are great detective stories which are both very entertaining and full of insight into Italian life. Zen is handsome, humorous and romantic and Rufus Sewell is the perfect choice to play Dibdin's delightful creation."

The first of the three Aurelio Zen films will be adapted from Dibdin's second series title, Vendetta. Shooting will begin in Italy in Spring 2010.