Peek at the BBC’s Aurelio Zen

Here’s a small peek at the BBC’s upcoming Zen, a three part series based on the Aurelio Zen novels by Michael Dibdin (destined to be on PBS). It’s nice to see Rufus Sewell back in a leading role – I’ve always thought the U.S. remake of Eleventh Hour was just a criminal waste of his talent – and I’m really hoping this time around he gets a good show.

Here’s an interview that includes a small clip:

And a nice BBC promo that gives you an overview of their 2011 slate, including Zen – and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Survivors as well.

Ratking (Aurelio Zen #1) Jacket:

In this masterpiece of psychological suspense, Italian Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen is dispatched to investigate the kidnapping of Ruggiero Miletti, a powerful Perugian industrialist. But nobody much wants Zen to succeed: not the local authorities, who view him as an interloper, and certainly not Miletti’s children, who seem content to let the head of the family languish in the hands of his abductors — if he’s still alive.

Was Miletti truly the victim of professionals? Or might his kidnapper be someone closer to home: his preening son Daniele, with his million-lire wardrobe and his profitable drug business? His daughter, Cinzia, whose vapid beauty conceals a devastating secret? The perverse Silvio, or the eldest son Pietro, the unscrupulous fixer who manipulates the plots of others for his own ends? As Zen tries to unravel this rat’s nest of family intrigue and official complicity, Michael Dibdin gives us one of his most accomplished thrillers, a chilling masterpiece of police procedure and psychological suspense.

You can read an excerpt here.