The film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s third novel The Remains Of The Day was sublimely effective in depicting that book’s themes of identity, memory and loss. With the writer’s fifth novel When We Were Orphans examining very similar concerns, a screen version – preferably across a television series, which lends itself to a more in-depth rendering – is something I’d love to see…

When We Were Orphans was published in 2000. Like 1989’s The Remains Of The Day, its first-person narrative focuses with a piercing intensity on personal relationships. At the same time, significant events of the interwar years in both London and Shanghai occasionally hurtle into the foreground, impacting the characters and the narrative in unforeseen ways. The novel’s main character Christopher Banks (yet another parallel with The Remains Of The Day and its self-sacrificing protagonist Stevens the butler) is a man defined by his work as a detective. He’s introspective and he doesn’t find it easy to forge relationships. There’s even a slight Pooterish aspect to him that Ishiguro teases out during social gatherings. As he begins his journey of self-discovery, Banks’s emotions are largely as buttoned-up as his cuffs and his upper lip is as stiff as his collars. He’s also intelligent, responsible and kind – a complex role for whoever is fortunate enough to play him.

As for the bigger global stage mentioned earlier, issues like creeping wars, refugees, colonialism, Britain’s shifting status as a world power and the way certain societal groups oppose obvious truths to deflect their own culpability are all explored. In the right hands, an adaptation of When We Were Orphans could draw a convincing correlation line between the interbellum era and now.

My desire for a television dramatisation of Ishiguro’s book might one day be fulfilled. In 2018, Variety reported that Peaky Blinders producer Caryn Mandabach had picked up the novel’s small-screen rights. A year later, the BBC were attached to the project and Ishiguro himself was on board as an executive producer. The trail has gone cold since then, possibly because of the impact COVID had on scheduling. In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on the inert IMDb entry for When We Were Orphans and hope for the best.