Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen will lead the cast of a television adaptation of David Nicholls' bestselling novel You Are Here, an eight-episode series commissioned by the BBC and Starz (Deadline, 30 July 2026).

Foy plays Marnie and Macfadyen plays Michael, two characters whose paths cross along the coast-to-coast walking trail that runs from the Lake District to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. Nicholls is writing the scripts himself, adapting his own novel for the screen.

Element Pictures is producing, with Lenny Abrahamson directing. Abrahamson and Nicholls are joined on the executive producer roster by Foy, Macfadyen, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe and Emma Norton for Element Pictures, and Jonny Richards and Anna Ferguson for the BBC. Clare Shepherd is the series producer.

The production will film in the Lake District and around Manchester. Fremantle, which is Element Pictures' parent company, holds international sales rights for the series. De Maio Entertainment is overseeing the partnership with Starz, which greenlit the show alongside the BBC.

BBC Director of Drama Lindsay Salt and Starz President of Original Programming Kathryn Busby both provided statements supporting the project, as reported by Deadline. The trade outlet's story carries original quotes from Nicholls, Abrahamson and Guiney alongside those from the two executives. It does not carry an "exclusive" tag, and reads as Deadline's own reporting rather than a republished press release.

Both leads come to the project with major television behind them. Foy is best known for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. Macfadyen won an Emmy for his role as Tom Wambsgans in Succession. Neither has been paired on screen before.

Nicholls has form with adaptation. His earlier novel One Day was turned into a romantic drama series for Netflix in 2024. With You Are Here, he takes on the writing himself, meaning the screen version will carry his own hand on every episode.

The commission fits a pattern that has become common in British drama: a public-service broadcaster partners with an international platform to share costs, with one side taking the domestic audience and the other taking the rest. In this case, the BBC will air the series in the UK and Starz will carry it in its markets. No air date has been announced.