The BBC is making a TV version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

Naomi Watts is rumoured to be taking Tippi Hedren's role in The Birds (Universal)

If you feel like a dose of ornithophobia has been missing from your television viewing the past few years, then look out for one of the BBC's new contemporary dramas next year.

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds is being reimagined for the small screen, in a series from Harry Potter producer David Heyman's Heyday Television.

As well known and beloved as Hitchcock's Tippi Hedren starrer is, the series will apparently in fact bear a closer resemblance to the 1952 Daphne du Maurier novel on which the film was based.

So instead of 60s California, it will be post-World War II era Cornwall where the birds attack.

The script is being written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, who previously adapted the story for the stage.

He also written and directed on several films including The Actors with Michael Caine and The Eclipse with Ciaran Hinds.