White Gold British TV Series Announced!

[Thagarr]

I just ran across this story over at Televisual.com, the UK television Channel 4 has signed up for a new TV series called White Gold. White Gold will be based on the book by author Giles Milton. The book is set on the Barbary coast in the 1700's and is based on the real life story of Thomas Pellow. who was captured by the Barbary Corsairs and forced into slavery. This is an interesting choice for many reasons, it's not a period that has really been covered much by most historians. Probably the most well known literary example of the time period that I know of would be the book The Sea Hawk by Rafael Sabatin, although that was set about 100 years earlier.

Red Arrow Entertainment and 4Rights have announced a deal to develop Giles Milton's book White Gold as an historical drama series for Channel 4.

Writer Adrian Hodges (My Week With Marilyn, Labyrinth, Primeval) will write the two-hour pilot script and bible for the proposed 12-part series. Simon Maxwell, Red Arrow's head of Drama & Comedy, will be executive producer and Sophie Gardiner will lead development for Channel 4.

White Gold is an account of the Barbary Corsair pirates and the white slave trade in North Africa throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. During this time, over one million white slaves were snatched in pirate raids across England, mainland Europe, and even as far as North America.

The book revolves around the true story of Thomas Pellow, a young Cornish merchant seized at sea by Barbary Corsairs and bought by the sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail, a man who had monarchs across the Western world running scared. The story follow’s Pellow's 23-year ordeal as the sultan's slave

You can read the full article HERE!