MUMBAI: BBC has announced an adaptation and completion of Charles Dickens? last novel, ?Edwin Drood?, left unfinished at the halfway mark at his death on 9 June 1870

?The Mystery Of Edwin Drood?, a two-part drama for BBC Two by writer Gwyneth Hughes, is a psychological thriller about a provincial choirmaster?s obsession with 17-year-old Rosa Bud (Tamzin Merchant) and the lengths he will go to to attain her.

?The Mystery Of Edwin Drood?, alongside Great Expectations on BBC One, forms part of the BBC?s celebration of Dickens as the pubcaster goes into the bicentenary of his birth, in 2012.

John Jasper (Matthew Rhys) is a troubled man, his psyche split between darkness and light. He has spent his life in the stifling and claustrophobic cathedral town of Cloisterham in a state of frustrated ambition and has become addicted to opium in an attempt to still his ennui and expand his horizons.

But the opium is fracturing Jasper?s mind so that even as his soul reaches for the sublime in his music, his darker self has conceived a murderous hatred of his nephew Edwin Drood (Freddie Fox) who, he believes, stands between him and the lovely Rosa. The stage is set for a story of mental and moral decline as Jasper sets out to attain the object of his desire.

A strange, disturbing and modern tale about drugs, stalking and darkness visible, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood is currently in production for transmission later this year. Made in-house by BBC Drama Production for BBC Two, the two-part drama by writer, Gwyneth Hughes is a co-production with Masterpiece on PBS.