Graham Norton says TV adaptation of 'Holding' has 'elevated' his book

Graham Norton has said his debut novel Holding is just like a lot of other similar books, but that ITV's adaptation has "elevated" it to something unique.

Chat show host, comedian and actor Norton published Holding in 2016 which will air as a TV series directed by Kathy Burke, written by Dominic Treadwell-Collins and starring Siobhan McSweeney and Conleth Hill next week.

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But despite it being his first book, Norton explained to Yahoo and other media that he had no problems in letting go of it and handing over the story to the TV team.

He said: "My book is a genre book, it's cosy crime, there are lots of books like my book. What (screenwriters) Karen (Cogan) and Dominic (Treadwell-Collins) have done is they've made a TV show that isn't like other TV shows.

"Its tone and its feel is entirely its own and that is so hard to do, everything is a bit like something else. They've really elevated the book in that sense."

Sharing that he didn't want to adapt the book for TV himself, he said of letting other people work on it: "I thought I might feel weird about it, I thought it might be an odd thing, but actually I've loved seeing the directions the characters have gone in and the way the world has opened up and become larger.

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"I wrote the book so long ago that honestly, when it came to it I didn't remember what the characters were called, so when you say did you make major changes, I'm like, 'I don't know'."

Norton added: "The only note I ever gave was that whenever I felt it was too Irish, I was going no, you've got Irish actors, you're filming in West Cork, it's Irish enough."

Treadwell-Collins agreed that there had been an effort not to create a drama too typically Irish, saying: "We made the note not to have ladies in headscarves looking wistfully off camera."

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Former EastEnders producer Treadwell-Collins said that although he had taken on the story from Norton, it also held a lot of significance for him as he drew inspiration from his own family's tragedy.

He said: "My dad died very suddenly when I was 15 in an accident and it affected my family massively in good ways and bad ways.

"I felt that now was the time to put that into the show and talk about grief and what it does to people and how holding onto grief can be so detrimental."

His father grew up on a farm in West Cork, which was used as one of the filming locations and he said: "It felt a bit cathartic for me and quite raw and painful, but I think the best things are like that."

Holding begins on Monday, 14 March at 9pm on ITV.

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