His Dark Materials: 10 Things The TV Series Must Get Right

9. Make It For A Grown-Up Audience

His Dark Materials is aimed at a variety of audiences. The beauty is that you could read it at pretty much any age, revisiting it at various stages, and find different kinds of enjoyment and meanings from it. As a child it's a wonder-filled fantasy, a magical realm to escape into. As a teenager, a story about growing-up. As an adult, an expertly-written critique of organised-religion. Presumably this will be a flagship show for the BBC, something to put on a Saturday night when Doctor Who is off the air. As such, it'll need to have a broader appeal than something like, say, Game of Thrones. But that doesn't mean it has to be too light, and they should trust the audience with some more grown-up material. Indeed, Doctor Who has been airing increasingly later over the last couple of years, dealing with dark themes or scary monsters (or both). An adaptation of His Dark Materials needs to deal with the strong themes and dramatic elements, while maintaining the fantasy setting.