Titanic survivor Evelyn Marsden's story heads to TV
The only Australian-born survivor of the Titanic is heading to television.
The Set Up is working with author Lisa Wilkinson on a TV adaptation of her non-fiction book The Titanic Story of Evelyn, as reported by Deadline on 7 October 2026. The project will tell the true story of Evelyn Marsden for the screen.
The book was published in April 2026. It went to number one on the Australian bestseller list across all genres, according to the same report.
Marsden was identified in the book as the only Australian-born survivor of the 1912 sinking. She was a young nurse, as described in The Guardian. Her story gives an Australian point of view on a disaster most viewers know only from American and British accounts.
The adaptation will be produced by Bruna Papandrea, Alison Hurbert-Burns and Steve Hutensky for The Set Up, alongside Wilkinson, Nick Fordham and Lee-Anne Higgins. That producing group pairs the book’s author with drama producers for the move from page to screen.
The Set Up is a television banner, meaning a production label created to develop shows, from Papandrea, Hutensky and Hurbert-Burns. It was launched by Hurbert-Burns together with Papandrea and Hutensky’s Made Up Stories. Hurbert-Burns is the former content chief at Australian streamer Binge, where she commissioned the comedy Colin From Accounts.
What makes this stand out is the speed of the screen move. A book published in April has found a television home by October. For viewers, this means the next steps will be casting, a broadcaster and a filming date, none of which have been disclosed.
