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The BBC has announced that hit new stage play 1536 is getting a big-budget TV adaptation.

The play is written by rising star Ava Pickett (How To Get To Heaven from Belfast, The Great), and has already picked up a number of awards including the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2024.

Quick Take: The stage has long been a source of material for TV and film, and with Margot Robbie on board as a co-producer, 1536 heading to the screen feels like destiny. Add to that Ava Pickett’s profile is growing across both play and screenwriting – crowned by her work on forthcoming Baz Luhrmann movie Joan of Arc. With the BBC also picking up Dear England for a TV adaptation, we can expect more high-profile London shows coming to screens.

1536 was a sold-out success and a critical smash-hit when it first premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2025, and is now headed into the West End. Sonia Friedman is taking the drama to the Ambassadors Theatre in London for a strictly limited run from 2 May to 1 August 2026.

Wuthering Heights star Margot Robbie is also a co-producer of the show.

“1536 is something I am immensely proud of and I feel so lucky and privileged to have the chance to bring Anna, Jane and Mariella to a wider audience and to build out their lives even more. In a world where every decision made in the corridors of power ricochets through all of our lives, this story feels more relevant than ever. I’m so grateful to Lindsay Salt for being such a champion of it from the start.” – Ava Pickett

The BBC has commissioned Drama Republic (Riot Women, One Day) to produce the new 8 episode half-hour series.

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, said that, “from the moment we saw Ava’s play we knew that we had to have the TV version on the BBC. Visceral, funny, provocative, timely and full of courage, this is a piece of work like no other.”

What is 1536 about?

1536 is set in Tudor England against the backdrop of Anne Boleyn’s arrest, with the story weaving royal scandal alongside rural struggle. It is a darkly comic and terrifyingly relevant story about friendship, sisterhood and a changing world.

Anna, Mariella and Jane: three young women gossiping, arguing and dreaming in an Essex village, desperately waiting for their lives to start. When the news reaches them that King Henry VIII has had his Queen, Anne Boleyn, arrested, the three of them never suspect that this act will change their lives forever.

1536 in the West End

Initial casting was recently announced for 1536 in the West End, with Liv Hill (Film Club, Miss Austen) as Jane, Siena Kelly (Adult Material, A Doll’s House) as Anna, and Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education, The Seagull) as Mariella – all reprising their roles from the Almeida Theatre production.

1536 is playing at the Ambassadors Theatre in London from 2 May to 1 August 2026.

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Main photo: 1536 - Playwright Ava Pickett (Photo via agent), and production photo by Helen Murray

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