A story of unrequited love set in 1930s London, against the backdrop of grimy streets and public houses.
Patrick Hamilton, responsible for both the haunting Gaslight and the atmospheric Hangover Square, published a semi-autobiographical trilogy under the title of Twenty Thousand Streets in 1935.
Revolving around The Midnight Bell, a public house off the Euston Road, it follows the painful pursuit of love from three different perspectives. Barman Bob (Bryan Dick), who yearns for penniless street-walker Jenny (Zoe Tapper). Bob's colleague Ella (Sally Hawkins), who is torn between the attentions of an older, wealthier man and her secret desire for her barman workmate.
Executive producer Gareth Neame says: ''Patrick Hamilton was one of the truly great British novelists of the 20th Century, but his extraordinary contribution has all too often been overlooked. His famous psychological thrillers such as Rope, Gaslight and Hangover Square influenced many of the celebrated filmmakers of the last century such as Alfred Hitchcock.
''The highly autobiographical Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky doesn't involve murders or darkened streets, but instead the intensely painful subjects of unrequited love, ambition and disappointment. It observes the minutiae of ordinary life and it gives us a unique insight into the emotionally wrecked life that Hamilton himself lived.''
