Date Published: 3rd March 2025
Award-winning production company Synchronicity Films (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Mayflies, The Tattooist’s Son: Journey to Auschwitz, The Cry) have optioned the rights for screen development to the internationally popular Isabel Dalhousie novels from best-selling author Sir Alexander McCall Smith. The 15 novels in the series are published in the UK on the Abacus imprint of The Little, Brown Book Group. Award-winning screenwriter Andrea Gibb (Miss Austen, Mayflies, Elizabeth is Missing) is attached to adapt the novels for television and All3Media International are on board to distribute.
Screenwriter, Andrea Gibb said: “I am thrilled to be adapting the adventures of Alexander McCall Smith’s delightful amateur sleuth, Isabel Dalhousie, for television. She is a fascinating character with a tenacious curiosity driven by a strong moral code and a faith in philosophical thinking, making this series incredibly appealing to dramatise.”
Author, Sir Alexander McCall Smith said:“I am delighted that Synchronicity is keen to translate the Isabel Dalhousie books to the screen. Isabel enjoys a very wide following in many parts of the world, and the idea of a highly-regarded Scottish film company engaging with her story is very attractive to me.”
What is planned?
Set to be a returnable, entertaining crime series, Dalhousie follows the unique lead character with wilful determination and stubborn independence, Isabel Dalhousie. She is neither a detective nor a police officer, but rather a philosopher and the editor of the Journal of Applied Ethics. However, it is Isabel’s profound curiosity and strong sense of morality that see her drawn into mysteries that should, quite frankly, be none of her business!
Set in Scotland’s cobbled capital city of galleries, investment banks, cosy cafes, and beautiful vistas, the ‘story of the week’ format will see Isabel drawn into a new mystery in each episode, with a new philosophical quandary to be answered, and a tumultuous personal life providing a wealth of stories alongside each crime.
Executive Producer and Synchronicity Films Founder, Claire Mundell said: “We love adapting popular novels for screen at Synchronicity, and I’m especially excited to be in advanced development on this well-loved series from Alexander McCall Smith – the Isabel Dalhousie novels. Dalhousie will appeal to viewers around the world who love an iconic female character such as Isabel and an entertaining, characterful, warm-hearted soft crime mystery series, all played out in the visually delicious world of Edinburgh.
VP Scripted Content for All3Media International, Lauren Jackson said: “With a track record for beautifully made, richly told literary adaptations, we are excited to partner with the brilliant team at Synchronicity on their next project adapting Alexander McCall Smith’s Dalhousie detective series. Isabel Dalhousie is one of fiction’s most richly developed female detectives and with BAFTA nominated writer Andrea Gibb set to bring this iconic sleuth to the screen we hope to welcome her to our preeminent detective slate.”
Claire Mundell (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Mayflies, The Tattooist’s Son: Journey to Auschwitz, The Cry), Creative Director and Founder of Synchronicity Films and Deanne Cunningham, Head of Development (Endeavour, Cold Feet) will executive produce for Synchronicity Films, alongside Andrea Gibb (Miss Austen, Mayflies, Elizabeth is Missing) who will adapt the script from Sir Alexander McCall Smith’s novels. Both McCall Smith and Gibb will also serve as Executive Producers. The Isabel Dalhousie series currently consists of fifteen novels, the most recent addition is The Conditions of Unconditional Love.
Sales of Alexander’s books now total close to 28 million copies in 47 languages around the world.
About Synchronicity Films
Synchronicity Films is an Emmy and Grammy-nominated scripted production company owned and run by BAFTA-winning producer and executive producer Claire Mundell. Synchronicity has a growing reputation for high-quality adaptations of critically acclaimed IP such as the Sunday Times / New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, now a major 6part original Sky and Peacock series; Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies, which was produced for BBC One. Upcoming projects include Hanif Kureishi’s The Body; Graeme Armstrong’s The Young Team; and Booker shortlisted His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet.
Synchronicity Films produced BBC One psychological thriller The Cry, adapted from Helen FitzGerald’s novel by Jacquelin Perske. The company is also active in film with credits including Karen Gillan’s The Party’s Just Beginning; BIFA / BAFTA nominated Only You by Harry Wootliff; and Andrew Haigh’s debut film Weekend.
About All3Media International
All3Media International distributes popular, award-winning TV programmes to over 1,000 broadcasters and media platforms around the world. The company has been celebrated for producing, marketing and distributing high-quality, ground-breaking and pioneering shows to a global audience, consistently topping the Broadcast and Televisual annual Indies Surveys and receiving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of its growth – twice. Its catalogue contains over 35,000 hours of content across all genres.
As well as one of the top-selling drama series MIDSOMER MURDERS, All3Media International’s quality scripted content includes FLEABAG, ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, IT’S A SIN, TRIGGER POINT, THE TOURIST, MYSTERY ROAD, VAN DER VALK and THE ENGLISH. Its non-scripted content slate includes premium factual documentaries such as WHO IS GHISLAINE MAXWELL? and FEVER PITCH: THE RISE OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE as well as various factual entertainment titles including ESCAPE TO THE CHATEAU, GREAT BRITISH MENU and FOUR IN A BED. The company also represents brands featuring some of television’s most beloved names including Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh, Gordon Ramsay, Mary Beard and Grayson Perry. All3Media International’s celebrated formats include THE TRAITORS, GOGGLEBOX, UNDERCOVER BOSS, LINGO, THE DOG HOUSE and RACE ACROSS THE WORLD, and it also represents an extensive list of successful scripted formats including LIAR, BLOOD, CHEAT and QUEER AS FOLK.
More information on the Isabel Dalhousie series can be found here: https://uk.mccallsmith.uk/series/sunday-philosophy-club-series/
