In an interview with BBC News this week, screenwriter Scott drummed home the extraordinary fact that it took 30 years to finally get The Queen’s Gambit on our screens.

Scott brought the TV and film rights to the epic chess drama in the late 1980s. But – despite having a legion of cult movie hits to his name, including Shallow Grave and Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert – he struggled to get studios on-board with the project.

Many felt the subject matter was too dull to take off (proving the premise of the story: never underestimate chess or the players behind it). Scott rewrote the script nine times in order to get it right; and even then a slated film version was cut short by the tragic death of Heath Ledger, who was set to come on-board as a director for the project.

The Queen’s Gambit holds a vital lesson for us all in the power of not giving up