Case Histories, the title given to the BBC dramatization of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie mystery series, will make its U.S. debut next month on PBS as part of Masterpiece Mystery! Starring Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie, Case Histories will air as three two-hour specials to be broadcast on Oct. 16, Oct. 23 and Oct. 30, 2011.
Case Histories' other cast members include Kirsty Mitchell as Jackson Brodie's wife, Josie; Millie Innes as his daughter, Marlee; Zawe Ashton as Deborah Arnold, his assistant; and Amanda Abbington as DI Louise Munroe. The drama was filmed in Edinburgh, the primary setting for Atkinson’s books.
The premier episode finds former police officer Brodie now a private investigator who is looking for a missing cat. He soon becomes entangled in a search for a long lost child and in the identification of a young woman’s killer.
The first three novels of Atkinson’s series – Case Histories (2004), One Good Turn (2006) and When Will There Be Good News (2008) – provide the basis for the televised drama. Atkinson also completed a fourth Jackson Brodie novel, Started Early, Took My Dog, in 2010.
Since the structure of Atkinson's novels is often episodic, their dramatization required a few structural changes. On the BBC’s website for Case Histories producer Helen Gregory explained, "A lot of the time in the novels Jackson's not even a detective, but collides with the stories in the course of the day to day. We've had to re-shape that so he can take on the cases, as opposed to meeting them by accident."
Case Histories first aired in Britain on June 5, 2011 and quickly acquired a broad audience. Women, especially, were attracted to the Jackson Brodie character. In the attached YouTube video Case Histories star Jason Isaacs talks with writer Kate Atkinson about the source of Jackson Brodie’s appeal to "legions of female fans." According to Atkinson, Brodie's allure comes from his role as a "moral warrior."
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