Kit Harington Will Lead a New Take on 'A Tale of Two Cities'
It's been almost forty years since the last time this Charles Dickens classic was adapted for the screen.
Some period drama adaptations are like clockwork. Every few years, a new take on Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility arrives. We seem to argue about what makes a decent version of Wuthering Heights roughly every decade or so. Pretty much every other holiday season, it feels like there’s a new version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
But while fresh takes on some of Dickens’s works — Great Expectations, Oliver Twist — also tend to reappear fairly regularly, one of his best (or at least the one we all had to read in high school) has rarely been adapted at all. Yes, yes, pretty much everyone can quote the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”). But there hasn’t been an onscreen version of this particular story since at least the 1980s.
That’s about to change thanks to the BBC and MGM+, which are set to launch a new four-part series take on Dickens’ classic later this year. Set during the lead-up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, A Tale of Two Cities follows the story of an unjustly imprisoned doctor, the daughter who thought he was dead, a French aristocrat determined to renounce his heritage, and a cynical lawyer.
The book wrestles with themes of resurrection, sacrifice, transformation, and justice. Though it’s probably not possible to spoil a 167-year-old story, it’s so rarely adapted that modern audiences will likely be surprised by many of its twists. (Particularly when it comes to why the actors who play the aforementioned Darnay and Carton need to physically look alike.)
Here’s the series synopsis.
London, 1782. Tensions run high in the war between France and Britain. A young woman, Lucie Manette has her life upended when she receives a message from Paris — her father, assumed dead for almost 20 years, may be alive. The messenger — idealistic French emigré, Charles Darnay — is arrested and charged with treason. Lucie enlists the help of a brilliant but erratic young lawyer, Sydney Carton, to free Darnay in the hope he will lead her to Paris to track down her father. Lucie’s collision with Darnay and Carton unleashes a powerful and complex love triangle. Both men fight to be worthy of her love, and Lucie is torn over which one to choose. Yet neither man - physically so alike, spiritually poles apart - can escape the other. Instead, they find themselves bound together in life and death, through triumphs, tragedies, marriage, and murder.
The series will star Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington as Sydney Carton, François Civil (The Three Musketeers Part 1: D’Artagnan) as Charles Darnay, and Mirren Mack (Miss Austen) as Lucie Manette.
“A Tale of Two Cities is the original historical blockbuster — a heartbreaking romance and a brutal revenge mystery, all set against the iconic backdrop of the French Revolution,” Harington said in a statement when the series was initially announced last Fall. “Our adaptation will be a twisting period thriller; one with a contemporary, volatile love triangle at its heart. We can’t wait to share it with audiences in 2026.”
The four-part limited series is written by Daniel West (Gunpowder) and directed by Richard Clark (Outlander). Executive producers include West and Harington for Thriker Films, Polly Williams and Sarah Best for Federation Stories, and Léo Becker for Federation Studio France. Simon Meyers (I May Destroy You) is producer. The series is distributed by Federation International.
A Tale of Two Cities doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet, but it is expected to air on the BBC and on MGM+ later this year.
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