‘Grantchester’ writer and Steve Coogan team up for 1960s Welsh hippy commune drama
Abbie Ross’s successful memoir Hippy Dinners is being adapted by Alan Partidge star Steve Coogan.
The Philomena actor and writer announced details of his new comedy-drama project at the Edinburgh Television Festival in Scotland last month.
He’s co-writing the script with Jess Williams, who has previously written episodes of Grantchester and Inspector George Gently.
Hippy Dinners: A Memoir of a Rural Childhood tells the story of Abbie Ross’s cosmopolitan parents moving the family from London to a remote farmhouse next to a hippy commune in rural North Wales.
Titled Far Out, the adaptation of Ross’s 2014 book will move the story back from 1972 to 1969.
Coogan commented: “It’s something I am passionate about and know will make people laugh and move them.
“It’s about class, politics and, more importantly than any of that, it’s about people, characters, stories humanity.”
He added: “It is about how people surprise you and how you shouldn’t judge people because you don’t know what their stories are.”
Producer Christine Langan said: “It’s very much about now even though it’s set in the sixties and 70s because it’s about how ideological can you live.
“It’s clear that a lot of people who grew up on communes became very successful business people.”
Hippy Dinners: A Memoir of a Rural Childhood is available to buy on Amazon.
It’s not been confirmed yet if Far Out will be a TV series or a movie, but it sounds like a lot of fun!