Editing Mervyn Peake (section)

==Dramatic adaptations of Peake's work==
In 1983, the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] broadcast eight hour-long episodes for radio dramatising the complete Gormenghast Trilogy. This was the first to include the third book ''[[Titus Alone]]''.

In 1984, [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast two 90-minute plays based on ''[[Titus Groan]]'' and ''[[Gormenghast (novel)|Gormenghast]]'', adapted by [[Brian Sibley]] and starring [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] as [[Steerpike]] and [[Freddie Jones]] as the Artist (narrator). A slightly abridged compilation of the two, running to 160 minutes, and entitled ''Titus Groan of Gormenghast'', was broadcast on Christmas Day, 1992. [[BBC 7]] repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003.

In 1986, ''Mr Pye'' was adapted as a four-part [[Channel 4]] miniseries starring [[Derek Jacobi]].

In 2000, the [[BBC]] and [[WGBH-TV|WGBH Boston]] co-produced a lavish miniseries, titled ''[[Gormenghast (TV serial)|Gormenghast]]'', based on the first two books of the series. It starred [[Jonathan Rhys-Meyers]] as Steerpike, [[Neve McIntosh]] as Fuchsia, [[June Brown]] as Nannie Slagg, [[Ian Richardson]] as Lord Groan, [[Christopher Lee]] as Flay, [[Richard Griffiths]] as Swelter, [[Warren Mitchell]] as Barquentine, [[Celia Imrie]] as Countess Gertrude, [[Lynsey Baxter]] and [[Zoë Wanamaker]] as the twins Cora and Clarice, and [[John Sessions]] as Dr Prunesquallor. The supporting cast included [[Olga Sosnovska]], [[Stephen Fry]] and [[Eric Sykes]], and the series is also notable as the last screen performance by comedy legend [[Spike Milligan]] (as the Headmaster).

A 30-minute TV short film entitled ''A Boy in Darkness'' (also made in 2000 and adapted from Peake's novella) was the first production from the BBC Drama Lab. It was set in a "virtual" computer-generated world created by young computer game designers, and starred [[Jack Ryder (actor)|Jack Ryder]] (from ''[[EastEnders]]'') as Titus, with [[Terry Jones]] (''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'') narrating.

[[Irmin Schmidt]], founder of seminal German [[Krautrock]] group [[Can (band)|Can]], wrote an opera called ''Gormenghast'', based on the novels; it was first performed in [[Wuppertal Opera|Wuppertal]], Germany, in November 1998. A number of early songs by New Zealand rock group [[Split Enz]] were inspired by Peake's work. The song "[[The Drowning Man]]", by British band [[The Cure]], is inspired by events in ''Gormenghast'', and the song "Lady Fuchsia" by another British band, [[Strawbs]], is also based on events in the novels.

Peake's play ''[[The Cave (play)|The Cave]]'', which dates from the mid-1950s, was given a first public reading at the [[Blue Elephant Theatre]] in [[Camberwell]] (London) in 2009, and had its world premiere in the same theatre, directed by Aaron Paterson, on 19 October 2010.

In 2011, Brian Sibley adapted the story again, this time as six one-hour episodes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as the [[Classic Serial]] starting on 10 July 2011. The serial was titled ''The History of Titus Groan'' and adapted all three novels written by Mervyn Peake and the recently discovered concluding volume, ''[[Titus Awakes]]'', completed by his widow, [[Maeve Gilmore]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012f7gz |title=Classic Serial: The History of Titus Groan |publisher=BBC Radio 4|access-date=12 June 2012}}</ref> It starred [[Luke Treadaway]] as Titus, [[David Warner (actor)|David Warner]] as the Artist and [[Carl Prekopp]] as Steerpike. It also starred [[Paul Rhys]], [[Miranda Richardson]], [[James Fleet]], [[Tamsin Greig]], [[Fenella Woolgar]], [[Adrian Scarborough]] and [[Mark Benton]] among others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012f7ms |title=Radio 4 Programmes&nbsp;– Classic Serial, The History of Titus Groan, Titus Arrives |publisher=BBC |access-date=12 June 2012}}</ref>

[[Sting (musician)|Sting]] owned the film rights to the ''Gormenghast'' novels for a brief period in the 1980s, during which he discussed the possibility of adapting the novels into a series of [[concept album]]s, but he abandoned the idea after declaring the Radio 4 audio drama as ideal. As of 2015, author [[Neil Gaiman]] was in talks to adapt the novels for the big screen.<ref>{{cite news|last=Flood |first=Alison |newspaper=The Guardian |title=Neil Gaiman in talks to adapt Gormenghast for cinema |date=14 December 2015 |access-date=21 December 2016 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/14/neil-gaiman-adapt-gormenghast-cinema-mervyn-peake}}</ref>