Knife Edge, the 2020 thriller novel and Sunday Times bestseller by veteran U.K. broadcaster and former BBC radio host Simon Mayo, has been optioned for TV by U.K. production company iGeneration Studios. Síofra Campbell has been attached to adapt the book to series and will also serve as lead writer and executive producer, alongside iGeneration principals Edward Glauser and Michael Shyjka.

Mayo’s fourth novel, Knife Edge follows disenchanted journalist Famie Madden as she investigates the brutal murder of four of her press agency colleagues in coordinated rush-hour stabbings in the space of minutes.

“I loved writing Knife Edge because I love writing about Famie,” said Mayo, who is perhaps best known as the co-host of the popular Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review on BBC Radio 1 alongside film critic Mark Kermode, which ran from 2001 until early 2022, when the two announced they were taking the format to a new podcast, Kermode and Mayo’s Take. “She’s not the easiest person to get on with, but she was the easiest person to write. It’s a very contemporary, old-fashioned thriller that ends with much blood in the cathedral. Who could say no?”

Campbell’s credits include Marvelous, her debut feature as writer-director, starring Ewen Bremner, Amy Ryan and Michael Shannon, and the 12-part scripted comedy podcast The British Are Coming! starring Clint Dyer, Akemnji Ndifornyen, Saskia Reeves and Barry Ward. 

“Famie is someone who has made her own chances, taken many knocks and is somehow still an idealist although she hides it well. Her unflinching commitment to finding the truth is tough to witness but impossible to look away from,” she said.

“Unlike so many thrillers that move smoothly through their gears, Knife Edge is a stunning story which escalates with beautiful unpredictability,” added iGeneration’s Glauser. “Simon has created strong and conflicted central characters and a carefully cloaked and multi-layered contemporary plot. Síofra’s adaptation ensures that this will be an enthralling watch.”

iGeneration Studios is currently in post-production on the Netflix series My Life with the Walter Boys, based on the Ali Novak novel, which will launch in 2023. Its rom-com film trilogy The Kissing Booth set viewing records for Netflix, with the second installment remaining in the streamer’s top 10 most-watched films of all time. Following their success with teen and young-adult programming, Knife Edge marks the first primetime thriller for iGeneration Studios, extending the company’s development and production remit.