David Nicholls quotes the secret diaries of 13-year-old Adrian Mole for the BBC | Adrian Mall

A writing team led by One Day creator David Nicholls and including Caitlin Moran bring 13¾-year-old Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole to the small screen in a 10-part BBC One adaptation of the classic story of teenage life in British suburbia.

Nicholls, who described the book as “a classic piece of comedy writing and a brilliant piece of ventriloquism by Sue Townsend”, will adapt the book that produced one of the most famous literary creations of the 1980s.

Best known for its dramatic, comedic assessments of his life in a dead-end street in the Midlands – “I feel like a character in a Russian novel half the time” – the book has sold 20 million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages.

“With a multi-coloured ballpoint pen as his guide, Adrian worries about his spots, his parents’ divorce, the agony of first love, and the fact that he has never seen a female nipple before,” the BBC said.

No casting has been revealed, and producers say “a nationwide search is currently underway to find Adrian.” Gian Sammarco starred in Thames TV’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole in 1985, with Julie Walters playing Mole’s mother, Pauline.

The book was also made into a musical and stage play, and a second television series based on Townsend’s later novel, Adrian Mole’s Growing Pains, was released in 1987.

Big Talk Studios, the production company behind Ludwig and The Outlaws, will produce the show for the BBC, while Nicholls will be joined in the writing room by Moran and her sister Caroline, Big Boy’s Jack Rock, and Dillon Mapletoft and Oliver Taylor, the team behind Every Else Burns.

Although Moll first appeared four decades ago, the character’s influence is still felt. Townsend, who died in 2014, said the character “did not use Twitter to commemorate his life” in the age of social media because his “thoughts and diaries were very private.”

Lindsay Salt, BBC Director of Drama, said: “The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole is one of those rare and moving stories that has captivated generation after generation.

“David Nicholls has brilliantly distilled wit, warmth and calm into Sue Townsend’s iconic novel, reminding us why Adrian’s voice remains as relevant today as it was in the 1980s.

“Times may have changed, but the fears, ambitions, and wonderfully awkward truths at the heart of Adrian’s world remain utterly timeless.”