London horror story from Stephen King to become Prime Video series
Gore blimey guv'nor
Did you know Stephen King wrote a story based in London? Well he did, and it’s set to become a Prime Video show.
Crouch End, the name of both the story and upcoming series, will be a six-parter and while there will no doubt be a wait for this one’s arrival, we do know plenty of details.
For those who haven’t read the original in King’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes short story collection, here’s the official synopsis:
“London never sleeps deeply, and its dreams are uneasy. When global movie star Doris Freeman bursts into a London police station claiming that strange phenomena are behind the disappearance of her husband, police inspector Ted Vetter must investigate whether she’s telling the truth, whether she could be a murderer, or whether there’s something even more chilling at play."
The Crouch End production crew is headed up by Paul Tomalin, who previously wrote for Netflix TV series Bodies and No Offence — which, no offence to Tomalin and co, we have not seen.
“After reading Crouch End some years back, Stephen King’s vivid prose has haunted my nightmares ever since,” says Tomalin.
King's vision of London
Can Stephen King write a version of the capital that won’t have Londoners rolling their eyes and wanting to throw themselves down the apples & pears? That may not actually matter, as Crouch End is being run as a proper UK production.
Tomalin is a Brit, as is Crouch End’s attached director Tom Shankland. He’s worked on plenty of TV shows in the past, including the recent House of Guinness, The Serpent and The Punisher.
According to the Nightmares and Dreamscapes contents page, Crouch End is a pretty slender 39-page tale.
The collection was made into a TV mini series in 2006 and, sure enough, its second episode was based on Crouch End. But, well, it’s the lowest-rated episode of the season according to IMDb, so hopefully this upcoming adaptation will fare a lot better.
Crouch End is one of Stephen King’s odes to Lovecraft, featuring a good-old dose of madness-inducing horror.
It will be Stephen King’s first UK-produced adaptation according to Variety, and as yet no cast members have been announced. Casting is reportedly taking place at present.
King hasn’t posted about the show plans, instead recently urging us to go see silly-fun Dino caper The End of Oak Street, which he calls “a glorious throwback to summer movies as they were back in the day. Total fun.”
Stephen King adaptations currently available on streaming include Doctor Sleep on NOW, The Mist on iPlayer, The Long Walk on Prime, The Running Man on NOW, The Life of Chuck on Netflix, IT on NOW and The Dark Half on Tubi — among others. There are absolutely loads of the things floating around the place.
But now is also as good a time as any to raise a glass to the sadly recently departed Tim Curry, whose role as Pennywise in the 1990 adaptation of IT was absolutely iconic, even if the TV show itself was a mixed bag. A behind-the-scenes doc on that show, Pennywise: The Story of It, is available on Prime Video.
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