Masterpiece Theatre Executive Producer Lands Deal for Memoir

By Jason Boog 

Longtime Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! producer Rebecca Eaton will publish her memoir with Viking in October. Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes of Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS will be written with Patricia Mulcahy.

Eaton has been an executive producer on Masterpiece since 1985, working on adaptations of many classic novels. Since she joined, the show has earned 44 Emmy Awards, 15 Peabody Awards, four Golden Globes, and two Academy Award nominations. Here’s more about the book from the release:

Eaton interviews actors, writers, directors and producers, and shares personal anecdotes—as well as photos from her own camera—from her decades-spanning career. She reveals what went on behind the scenes during such triumphs as Cranford and the highly rated programs made from Jane Austen’s novels, as well as her aggressive campaign to attract younger viewers via social media and online streaming. Along the way she also shares stories about luminaries such as Alistair Cooke, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kenneth Branagh, Gillian Anderson, and Daniel Radcliffe, whose first TV role was as the title character in David Copperfield.