OSCAR-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who grew up in Glusburn, is adapting a popular spy novel for television.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, set at the height of the Cold War, is being adapted for the BBC by Mr Beaufoy, who in 2009 won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is a 1963 Cold War spy novel by British author John le Carré, which follows the character Alec Leamas, a hard-drinking British intelligence officer whose East Berlin network is in tatters.

Mr Beaufoy, who was educated at Malsis School in Glusburn and Ermysted's Grammar School in Skipton, said: "It's incredibly exciting to be working on the best Cold War spy story ever written."

The series will appear on BBC One and is another co-production with US network AMC, following their joint effort on The Night Manager, another of Carré's novels adapted for TV which was nominated for best mini series or TV film at the Golden Globes.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is set in 1962, months after the building of the Berlin Wall.

In the story, Leamas's agents are on the run or dead - victims of the East German counter-intelligence officer Hans-Dieter Mundt.

Leamas is recalled to London and while there he is offered a chance at revenge.

The novel was originally made into a 1965 film, starring Richard Burton.

The show is being produced by The Ink Factory, the production company behind The Night Manager, in association with Character 7.

Piers Wenger, controller of BBC Drama, said: "Following the huge global success of The Night Manager, it's a privilege to announce that John le Carré will return to BBC One with one of the best spy thrillers ever written."