Speaking about his adaptation at the Hay Festival, sponsored by the Telegraph, he said: “Nobody sings. Well they might sing the odd little song but they don’t yell great things like they do in the musical.”

Questioned about why the corporation would want to commit to an adaptation of the novel, so soon after the musical film, Davies said: “It’s quite a few years and I hope that people have got over the dreadful memory of the musical. People may think that’s all there is, and I thought it was important that people realise there’s a lot more to Les Miserables than that sort of shoddy farrago. I feel that the book needs a bit of a champion.

“I’m only doing it really because quite a long while ago somebody said, ‘Why don’t you do this?’ And I said, ‘I haven’t even read it’. So I read it and I thought, 'Yes, I’d like to do it'. That’s it.”

The screenwriter said he expected the BBC to announce the Sunday night, BBC One adaptation next week, adding that casting had not yet taken place. The series is expected to air some time in 2017.

Davies said that he had prepared for the adaptation by driving around, listening to an audio book of the classic tale of revolution in 19th century France.

The screenwriter previously told the Telegraph that he hoped to get the go-ahead from the BBC to make the series, adding: “It's another big epic story and I think people will be surprised that there is so much more to it than they maybe realise.”

Speaking in February, he said: "It's an immensely powerful story about appalling levels of poverty and deprivation and how people transcend [them]; it's about redemption and revenge and the extraordinary relationship between Jean Valjean and a little girl he brings up.

"The pursuit of Javert, the indomitable detective who lets it get personal, is classic film noir."

Appearing at Hay, Davies also revealed that James Norton, who was catapulted to heartthrob status by his role as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in War and Peace, was not the first choice for the part.

Although he would not reveal whom he had previously approached to play the tempestuous noble, Davies said “quite a few actors” turned down the role.

War and Peace was lauded by critics, and was seen by audiences of more than nine million.

Davies noted that even Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, had outed himself as a fan of the series.

Speaking last month, Putin said: “I also watched it, and liked it. It seems to me that they were able after all to capture the Russian soul, the epoch and the depth of Tolstoy’s thought."