Bafta and TV beckoned for DI Andy Horton

Almost ten years ago this month I stepped into the hallowed BAFTA club in London feeling like a film star, my eyes roving to spot the famous actor and with wonderful hopes that the DI Andy Horton Solent Murder Mysteries might become a television crime series.  Alas it was not to be.  Not through want of trying by the wonderful executives at Lime Pictures who had optioned the series - then eleven novels - now seventeen with number eighteen due this year 2024 - but I soon learned that the journey from book to screen is an arduous and torturous one, with a lot of luck thrown in.

The DI Andy Horton series was given a script writer and a treatment (sales pitch) and then presented to television commissioning editors at the BBC and ITV. The BBC weren't interested - even back then they were looking for female detectives and I certainly wasn't going to have Andy turned into Andrea! ITV however were interested.

The process went through various levels of commissioning executives and I was beginning to wonder how any television programme ever got made and arrived on our screens. But we reached the stage where a pilot episode was possibly going to be signed off. Then BANG fate took a hand.  The head of drama who was to sign it off left and DI Andy Horton no longer fitted the slate of the new person in post.

These things happen, and very many wonderful crime novels never reach our televisions screens. On the other hand some do and flop dreadfully and I would have hated that. Others pull it off because the script, the characters, the setting, the timing, the excellent casting and acting, the direction and production all come together to make it a hit.  The timing also has to be right.  Trends in drama and TV change, commissioning executives come and go, new exciting channels open up. Sometimes your novels (and contacts) are simply in the right place at the right time.

I had fun on my journey. I met some great people and enjoyed learning all about the process of book to screen (almost). Because it failed to become a hit TV series that time it doesn't mean to say that Andy will never reach the small screen, or come to that Inspector Ryga or Art Marvik.

Lime Pictures did their utmost to bring my enigmatic sailing detective to life on screen. They were of the firm belief that DI Andy Horton was detective who could cut through the competition.

Here is what they said: "His character is fascinatingly knotty, with his difficult childhood, troubled marriage and chequered career, and a detective who lives on a small boat and rides a motorbike is a fresh reboot of the TV detectives that we already know. We are confident that the intriguing partnership of Horton and Cantelli will attract a fantastic cast."

They added, ‘The unique angle of each DI Horton mystery  being connected to the sea can truly set this series apart, making it look and feel distinctive from existing urban police procedurals or rural detective  shows. The sailing element can make the series into a visual treat and the setting of historic Portsmouth, Hayling Island, and the Isle of Wight brings a  landscape to screen that is rarely seen in drama and also reaches an underserved audience.’

There's still time yet. I'm open to offers!