Getting On’s Vicki Pepperdine and Joanna Scanlan are making their return to the screen in a comedy about suffragettes. The pair’s production company George + George is developing a screen adaptation of Lissa Evan’s 2018 bestselling comic novel Old Baggage.
Set in 1928, Old Baggage tells the story of Matilda Simpkin, a former militant suffragette looking for a new project that will give her the same excitement that smashing windows, heckling Churchill and giving speeches in the name of women’s suffrage did. Scanlan and Pepperdine will play Matilda and her lifetime companion The Flea – though they have yet to reveal who is who.
Scanlan told Deadline: “Lissa’s grasp of character and her immaculate feel for women’s history made this property irresistible to us as actors and now producers. The book made us laugh, it made us cry and it kept us up reading till three in the morning. We can’t wait to start to develop it for long-form television.”
Company chief executive Christine Langan commented: “We wanted to work with George + George because of their talent for unearthing unique stories about women and presenting them to audiences in fresh, exciting and funny ways. Lissa’s utterly charming Old Baggage is both a fascinating take on history and deeply relevant to the lives we live today.”
