Simon Doonan to Hit the Small Screen in “Low-Rent Madame Bovary“

Back in January, we mentioned that Barneys creative director Simon Doonan deserves his own TV show. So let it be written, so let it be done! (As our favorite Yul Brynner-quoting English teacher was fond of decreeing.) While we had more of a chatfest in mind, WWD reports that it will be a comedy series, adapted from Doonan’s memoir Nasty: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints. Entitled Beautiful People, the show is being produced by Jon Plowman (Absolutely Fabulous, The Office) with playwright Jonathan Harvey penning the script.

“I am totally delirious and delighted, and bewitched, buggered, and bewildered,” Doonan said on Wednesday. “It’s one of the most surprising, hilarious things to ever happen to me. It’s the real cherry on the cake.”

The book focuses on his childhood in dreary Reading to his pull towards the glamorous fashion world. It is filled with anecdotes, from the years he spent dressed up as a pirate to his being arrested in Los Angeles wearing Vivienne Westwood plaid bondage pants. “It’s a low rent Madame Bovary,” Doonan said.

Casting is now underway, and the show is scheduled to air on BBC2 this fall — in the United Kingdom. We’re hoping that Barneys and the stores of Doonan’s partner, new blogger Jonathan Adler, will have imported episodes playing on a loop so we can catch it stateside.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.