Marilyn Monroe final months to be dramatised

The last six months of Marilyn Monroe's life are to be retold in a new drama from the writer of BBC One's Trust Me.

The series will explore the actress's relationship with Hollywood studio bosses and US President John F Kennedy.

BBC Studios is developing the series with writer Dan Sefton and producer Simon Lupton, of Seven Seas Films.

Sefton, whose medical drama Trust Me returns this year, said he was "thrilled... to bring this incredible true story to the screen."

Monroe, star of such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, died in August 1962 at the age of 36.

Her death, attributed to an overdose of sleeping pills, has been the subject of much controversy and speculation ever since.

The series, with the working title The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, will be based on parts of Keith Badman's 2010 book The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe.

According to the BBC, it will be located "where the harsh glamour of 1960s Hollywood and the hard-edged politics of Washington intersect".

BBC Studios' Anne Pivcevic said the "ambitious" drama series would tackle "big themes such as power, love, loyalty and politics".

"Marilyn's desire to be taken seriously as an actress and her battle with the powerful men who control the studio system is sadly as relevant today as it ever was," said Sefton.

It is not yet known who will play Monroe, who was portrayed by Gemma Arterton last year in an episode of Sky TV's Urban Myths.

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