Philip Pullman's beloved trilogy is arriving on the BBC at some point in 2017. The arrival of the show has been cloaked in secrecy, but we can tell you that the writer behind Harry Potter no, not J.K Rowling but Jack Thorne, who co-wrote the script for the Cursed Child – is on board.

Just in case Pullman's books passed you by, here's what you need to know: His Dark Materials is made up of three books, Northern Lights (1995, The Golden Compass in America), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The books feature a coming of age story that follows Lyra Belacqua and then Will Parry in the last two books, as they travel through various parallel universes

The trilogy is in part a retelling and inversion of John Milton's Paradise Lost and a comment and celebration of humanity for the original sin. But don't let that put you off – this is a subtle and mesmerising collection of children's stories featuring armoured polar bears, witches, philosophy, physics and love

Hopefully, the BBC will have learnt lessons from the 2007 film The Golden Compass, which received bad reviews from critics. With a bit of luck, His Dark Materials will be among the best TV this year.