03/04/2006

David Thompson, head of BBC Films has just announced that the feature filmmaking arm of the BBC has secured the film rights to Andy McNab and Robert Rigby's best-selling thriller Boy Soldier and its sequel, Payback.

Boy Soldier, the first in a series of four books, was one of the fastest selling children’s hardbacks of all time in the UK. It tells the story of Danny, brought up in a children’s home, who always believed he had no living relatives. But when he tries to join the army, his application is refused because his grandfather Fergus is a disgraced former SAS soldier now on the run.

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Danny sets out to track him down, not realising he is being used as bait by the secret services. Fergus is being framed by a senior figure in government who will stop at nothing to bring him down. Pitted against the high tech weapons of MI6, they have to rely on all of Fergus' skills to evade capture and clear his name, at the same time trying to build the relationship they never had.

Andy McNab was the most decorated soldier in the British Army when he finally left the SAS in 1993. He wrote about his experiences in two phenomenal bestsellers, Bravo Two Zero, made into a film in 1998, and Immediate Action. His co-writer Robert Rigby is an established young people’s playwright who works mainly for television. Both McNab and Rigby are adapting their book themselves for the big screen.

"We are delighted to be renewing our relationship with Andy after Bravo Two Zero," said David Thompson. "Boy Soldier is both a fantastic thriller and a moving story of the relationship between a boy and his grandfather. The project also represents BBC Films' commitment to making more ambitious films for wider audiences."