‘Lost Detectives: Adapting Old Texts for New Media’ (Stage 2)

Description of impact

The main areas of impact for this stage of the project have been creativity, culture and public understanding. Stage 2 of 'Lost Detectives' took three cultural artefacts (novels written in Russian in the second half of the nineteenth century and never translated into any foreign language) and adapted them into far more accessible and marketable English-language scripts for possible production by a leading publisher in order to reach a new, and much wider, audience. Stage 1 of the project proved via collected feedback that members of an English-speaking public deeply appreciate the opportunity to gain new knowledge of a previously unknown aspect of foreign cultural production. The continued collaboration between one academic and one non-academic practitioner in Stage 2 inspired and informed new forms of artistic production and further collaboration across traditional discipline divides. The production of 3 further adapted scripts produced impact on the creative practitioner, artist-illustrator, Carol Adlam because it added to her portfolio of work that she can pitch in the future to publishers and radio producers.
The development of the project website has led to greater public knowledge of the project in general and, more specifically, of the existence of early Russian crime fiction and the processes involved in adapting cultural artefacts from one medium to another. The recording of 5 podcast episodes available via the project website has been of benefit not just to the broader public but also to the participants (Simon Grennan and Val McDermid) and the interviewers.
The project has been of economic benefit both to my collaborator, the artist-illustrator Carol Adlam, who has benefitted from developing more adaptation work.

Who is affected

Members of the public. Fans of crime writing and crime fiction. Carol Adlam (artist-illustrator and creative collaborator on the project). Simon Grennan (author). Val McDermid (author). Tomas Vancisin (PhD student employed as technical assistant for development of the website and podcast recordings).

Impact status	Open
Impact date	Oct 2019
Category of impact	Cultural, Creative Impact, Practitioner Impact, Social Impact
Impact level	Involvement - mid or active stage