Miss Potter, to be seen on M-Net’s Monday Night Premiers programme, takes a look at British writer Beatrix Potter, creator of the famous Peter Rabbit stories, and her relationships with her parents, her publisher and the publisher’s sister.

Children around the world have heard of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck and Squirrel Nutkin, but few know much about their creator, writer and botanist Beatrix Potter (1866-1943). This film focuses on the author’s life when she was in her mid-thirties and still living with her well-to-do parents in London.

A sheltered, lonely but plucky woman, Beatrix immersed herself in her journals, sketching and writing about her “friends”, as she called her animal creations. A friendship with publisher Norman Warne blossomed into love, and her happiness was complete when she found a kindred spirit in his sister Millie. Knowing how her snobbish mother felt about “tradesmen”, she kept her engagement secret, only for Fate to intervene.

Miss Potter is directed by Chris Noonan, starring Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson and Lucy Boynton and can be seen on M-Net on March 24 at 20h30.