The Paying Guests heads for TV with Killing Eve writer behind lesbian murder mystery

A secret relationship between two women is set to spiral into murder in a new TV adaptation of Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests.

BBC Studios Fiction has optioned the acclaimed novel, with Killing Eve and In My Skin writer Kayleigh Llewellyn attached to adapt the story for television.

Set in London in 1922, the story follows Frances Wray and her widowed mother as financial difficulties force them to take paying lodgers into their once-comfortable home.

Young married couple Lilian and Leonard Barber soon arrive, but Frances and Lilian begin a secret relationship behind Leonard’s back.

What begins as a forbidden romance develops into something much darker, with murder and a dramatic court case transforming the story into a tense crime mystery.

From the author of Tipping the Velvet

Waters is already responsible for some of television’s best-known LGBTQ+ period dramas.

Her novel Tipping the Velvet was adapted into the memorable BBC series in 2002, while Fingersmith also became a BBC drama and later inspired the acclaimed film The Handmaiden.

Remarkably, The Paying Guests is the only one of Waters’ six novels that has not previously received a screen adaptation.

Llewellyn also brings an impressive television background to the project. Alongside writing for Killing Eve, she created the acclaimed drama In My Skin.

When can we watch The Paying Guests?

The project is still in development, so there is no cast, broadcaster or streaming service confirmed yet, and a release date hasn’t been announced.

The Paying Guests is currently being developed for television, with casting and release details still to be announced.