Middlemarch has been adapted several times for television and the stage. In 1968 it appeared as a BBC-produced TV mini-series of the same name, directed by Joan Craft, starring Michele Dotrice. The first episode, "Dorothea", is missing from the BBC Archives, while the third episode, "The New Doctor", can be viewed online, although only as a low-quality black and white telerecording owned by a private collector. The other five episodes have been withheld from public viewing.[60][61] In 1994 it was again adapted by the BBC as a television series of the same name, directed by Anthony Page with a screenplay by Andrew Davies. This was a critical and financial success and revived public interest adaptating the classics.[62] In 2013 came a stage adaptation, and also an Orange Tree Theatre Repertory production adapted and directed by Geoffrey Beevers as three plays: Dorothea's Story, The Doctor's Story, and Fred & Mary.[63] The novel has never been made into a film, although the idea was toyed with by the English director Sam Mendes.[64] In April 2022, Dash Arts produced The Great Middlemarch Mystery,[65] an immersive theatre experience[66] staged across three locations in Coventry, including Drapers Hall.
The opera Middlemarch in Spring by Allen Shearer, to a libretto by Claudia Stevens, has a cast of six and treats only the central story of Dorothea Brooke. It was first staged in San Francisco in 2015.[67] In 2017, a modern adaptation, Middlemarch: The Series, aired on YouTube as a video blog.[68] Lyrics for the song "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths were taken from Middlemarch ("I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular").
