Element to produce David Nicholls adaptation which will star Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen

The BBC has teamed up with US network Starz to co-commission an adaptation of David Nicholls’ latest romance novel You Are Here.

Produced by Normal People indie Element Pictures and starring The Crown’s Claire Foy and Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen, the 8 x 30-minute series will be set along the Coast-to-Coast walking trail from the Lake District to Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire.

Filmed on location and around Manchester, it will follow Macfadyen and Foy as Michael and Marnie, who are unexpectedly thrown together by a mutual friend to set off together on an epic walk, where they begin a romance.

Nicholls will adapt his own work and exec produce, with You Are Here directed by Element’s Lenny Abrahamson (Normal People), who will also exec produce alongside Foy and Macfadyen. Also exec producing are Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe and Emma Norton for Fremantle-owned Element and Jonny Richards and Anna Ferguson for the BBC. The producer is Clare Shepherd.

Nicholls, who is also behind the novels One Day and Starter for Ten, said: “The intention with the novel was to write a close-up study of a relationship, but set against this magnificent landscape, and that’s our ambition here too; to make something both intimate and epic, funny and dramatic, a romantic comedy with real emotion.”

Abrahamson said: “The novel is such a beautiful love story – funny, profound and ultimately deeply hopeful. I’m also extremely excited to have Claire and Matthew, two actors I hugely admire, playing Michael and Marnie.”

Guiney said: “You Are Here feels to us like a drama the world needs right now – life affirming, positive, funny and full of charm.”

BBC director of drama Lindsay Salt added: “The combination of David’s wonderful scripts, Lenny back directing on the BBC, Element Pictures producing, and Claire and Mathew leading our cast is a real gift.”

Global sales will be handled by Fremantle with De Maio Entertainment spearheading the partnership with Starz.

The BBC and Starz have previously co-commissioned dramas including The Missing, from New Pictures and Two Brothers Pictures.

Kathryn Busby, Starz’s president of original programming, said: “You Are Here is disarming, sly and deeply romantic. It captures something true and aching about the way we love now.

“Together with our partners at the BBC, we are thrilled to be working with the dream team of David, Lenny, Claire, Matthew and Element Pictures to bring this beautiful love story to life. It’s a perfect fit for our Starz audience.”