Exciting Times, indeed!

Actress Phoebe Dynevor, who shot to fame for her performance as Daphne in Netflix's period drama Bridgerton, has been cast in the television adaption of Naoise Dolan's Exciting Times. The English actress will play Ava, an Irish student teaching English in Hong Kong, who finds herself in a love triangle with Julian, a male British banker, and Edith, a female lawyer from Hong Kong. The Irish writer's debut novel was released last year and enjoyed critical success, and was even longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021. The rights for a TV series adaption were obtained by Black Bear Pictures, a US-based financier-producer and the show is being developed by Amazon Studios. Dolan will co-write the production with Cooper Raiff, who will also serve as director on the project. Sharing the news, Dynevor posted a screenshot from an article announcing the casting on her Instagram story, and wrote: "Here we go!" https://www.instagram.com/p/CStXQjdMPFG/ Dolan, for her part, shared the article on Twitter and wrote: "Adaptation news!" The TV series adaption of Exciting Times was first announced last year, and Black Bear Pictures shared a brief synopsis of the project. They said that, like the book, the series will follow "the liaisons of Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, who spends her days teaching English to rich children." At the time, Dolan said that she was "thrilled" to work with the company on the project. She said: "I think my love of dialogue is clear from the book, so I’m thrilled to partner with Black Bear to bring the characters to a TV audience, and even more so to be involved as an executive producer. "Black Bear is discerning, independent-minded, and very engaged with the novel, so it will be a privilege to work together on this project."