Talk about holding a grudge.

One day you toss the tyrannical mother country's load of Lipton into Boston Harbor. The next — give or take some 235 years — she retaliates by turning your beloved "Gone With the Wind" into, gulp, a musical.

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Darius Danesh and Jill Paice star in 'Gone With the Wind: The Musical.'
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(A musical, we hear, where Melanie sings a ditty entitled "Desperate Times" after Scarlett kills that nasty Yankee soldier who tried to get into her pantaloons. Fingers crossed there'll also be tap-dancing!)

"Gone With the Wind: The Musical," is the brainchild of a novice playwright from Southern California who spent two years creating songs before she even approached author Margaret Mitchell's estate for rights to the book. It stars American actress Jill Paice (Broadway's "Curtains") as Scarlett O'Hara and Scotsman Darius Danesh as South Carolina Lowcountry native Rhett Butler.

Directed by Mr. "Cats" himself, Sir Trevor Nunn, the show officially opens April 22 in London's famed West End.

That's about 4,200 miles as the Delta bird flies for Atlantans itching to see Mitchell's literary classic onstage. Throw in some pricey admission ($55 to $120) and few of us likely will get to witness Glasgow native Danesh croon "I don't give a damn" live.

Fortunately, TCM is making an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary about the musical to air April 20. Unfortunately, you'll have to be watching television in England to see it.

Blimey! What's going on here?

Like author Mitchell, Ted Turner's classic movie channel was born in Atlanta. But TCM now airs in 40 different territories worldwide, with separate budgets and programming. The "Wind" documentary is a British TCM production its American counterpart has no role in.

"We all communicate about our ongoing original projects [and] give each other an opportunity to get involved in them," said Charlie Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM in the United States. "It [the documentary] was pretty local to what was going on in the U.K."

Little news has leaked out about the show, which was written by Margaret Martin, whose name and résumé — she has a doctorate in public health from UCLA — are apt to cause double-takes. In an interview with John Wiley, editor of the Virginia-based fan quarterly "The Scarlett Letter," Martin described Scarlett as "a stressed-out, teenage single mom." She also promised songs from Mammy, Prissy, Pork and Rhett (a lullaby!)

England's bigfooting of this Southern classic might seem to make as much sense as serving shepherd's pie at the Twelve Oaks barbecue.

Or maybe not.

"We got a Brit to play Scarlett in the movie," said Wiley, referring to Oscar-winner Vivien Leigh. "Maybe they're pulling the reverse."

Meanwhile, TCM's Tabesh doesn't totally rule out the documentary airing here someday.

"It will be available to be acquired if there's interest," he said. "I think there might be."

Translation: Tomorrow is another day.