BBC drama to complete Charles Dickens's unfinished novel

Dickens, loved around the globe for classics like 'Great Expectations', 'Oliver Twist', 'Hard Times' and 'David Copperfield', wrote only half of the psychological thriller before his death on June 9, 1870.

And now Gwyneth Hughes, known for his TV thrillers 'Five Days' and 'Miss Austen Regrets', has taken on the difficult task of completing the story for a BBC Two drama, due to be broadcast in the bicentenary of Dickens's birth next year, the Telegraph reported.

"The tragedy of the erotically obsessed cathedral choirmaster, John Jasper, throbs with sexual menace, murder and opium addiction. But alongside his story runs a brilliant small-town social comedy which is often laugh-out-loud funny. After all, this is Dickens, the great emotional extremist, and master of the rollercoaster ride. It's just the most enormous fun," Hughes said.

In the show, Matthew Rhys will star as Jasper, who becomes obsessed with 17-year-old Rosa Bud (Tamzin Merchant). A secret opium-addict, Jasper develops a murderous hatred for Bud's betrothed, his nephew Edwin Drood (Freddie Fox).

The BBC insists the story remains relevant some 140 years after its conception, billing the two-part drama as "a strange, disturbing and modern tale about drugs, stalking and darkness visible."

The show has been directed by Diarmuid Lawrence of the 'Emma' fame.