Alexander McCall Smith's popular detective series comes to the small screen courtesy of HBO and the BBC. Oscar winner Anthony Minghella shepherds this project with a two-hour pilot shot in Botswana.

The first BBC drama to be filmed entirely on location in Botswana, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a charming story chronicling the adventures of Mma Ramotswe. When Precious Ramotswe was young, she spent her days with Obed, her father, in the wilds of Botswana learning the secrets of nature, and with that the joys of a natural inquisitiveness and intuition. When Obed dies, he leaves Precious the first 'step-up' into her new career - one hundred and eighty cows. With this investment she decides to become her country's first ever female detective.With a bad marriage to jazz musician Note Makoti behind her, the sassily independent Precious Ramotswe embarks on a radical and exciting new chapter in her life.

Precious is not deterred by town gossips and despite few assets, a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, two decrepit typewriters, a teapot and three teacups, she sets up her detective agency with a powerful sense of vocation. The most troubling of her cases however, involves an evil form of witchcraft and the riddle surrounding a kidnapping...

Alexander McCall Smith's novel, which follows the adventures of detective Precious Ramotswe, is to be made into 13 episodes. US television network HBO is partnering the BBC, which is part-funding it, to make the series.