Two days ago, the British public broadcaster announced the launch of a new drama based on the first novel, still unpublished, by Kaliane Bradley. The title of both the novel and the series is The Ministry of Time. According to the information provided by the BBC on its official website, the plot focuses on a British government department that recruits agents from different periods in history. The striking resemblance of the title and plot to the Spanish series The Ministry of Time, Created by Javier and Pablo Olivares and broadcast on La 1 between 2015 and 2020, it raised the suspicions of many Twitter users, who alerted both the BBC and the creator of the series, Javier Olivares, to the similarity.
Official RTVE sources assure that “neither RTVE nor the production company that took charge of the production of the series have granted any license to the BBC or any production company for the adaptation of The Ministry of Time. “RTVE will ask the BBC for the appropriate explanations regarding the announcement it made without prejudice to the rights it has in defense of its interests.”
It is not the first time that the fiction starring Rodolfo Sancho, Aura Garrido and Nacho Fresneda has been at the center of a similar controversy. In September 2016, the production company Onza Partners sued the NBC network for plagiarism following releasing the series Timeless, created by Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan. In the lawsuit, they accused them of “conspiring to steal” and “taking away” the idea of the series. In both fictions, a team of three people (two men and a woman) work for the Government, traveling in time to prevent history from being altered. Finally, in 2017 a provisional dismissal agreement was reached that put an end to the legal battle and allowed Timeless might continue to be broadcast.
“That NBC (judicial agreement, it is not an opinion) and the BBC (same title and idea) plagiarize you shows how badly we did it with “The Ministry of Time”, Javier Olivares said in X, with irony, that he requested in his message some action on the part of TVE, something that, according to the corporation’s statements, has already been implemented.
In the official statement, the BBC explains that the idea for The Ministry of Time part of the unpublished novel by Kaliane Bradley, which will be adapted by Alice Birch, screenwriter for Normal People. The well-known production company A24 will be responsible for the fiction. Its characters will include a commander from John Franklin’s 1845 Arctic expedition, an army captain from the Battle of the Somme in World War I, a plague victim from the early 17th century, an 18th-century soldier, and a widow of revolutionary France. These time expatriates reach the 21st century through bridges (in the Spanish series it is through doors) and they will be forced to share a flat and adapt to the habits and customs of contemporary life. In this coexistence, romantic tensions will arise and they will have to face a conspiracy.
