Exclusively in theSpectacle, Mark Lawson introduces next week's preview of Martin Amis's The A Team

It's a truism often expressed, although no less true for being so, that a screen tie-in novelist is only as good as his or her last screen tie-in. Martin Amis then, must only be considered as good as The Goonies, his 1985 adaptation of the movie of the same name.

For many novelists, Amis's adaptation would be regarded as a triumph rather than a disappointment. But Amis's take - while never less than great - (Amis cannot write a dull line (proving the idiom, common amongst pianists, that the better you play, the harder it is to play badly)) never illuminates the characters and story in the same way his work does when the source material is grey and lodged firmly between his ears, ie his noggin (brain).

While never a traditional 'they said-they did'  - Amis likes carving too much to make planks - Amis's attempts to define a new genre (more like 'they said, they did, then something else happened  the importance of which you yourself should ponder') were hampered by the respect tie-in novelists must pay to the source. Goonie fans were more than a little upset by Amis's introduction of a character not seen on the screen, Keith Cunt.

And the potential for controversy doesn't end there. Salman Rushdie recently upset the legion of Harry Potterites, when his tie-in for the first cinema outing was re-entitled Harry Potter and the Wizard's Stone, in homage, the author contends, to magic realism.

As for The A-Team, Amis must know he has inherited not just a hot potato, but the keys to the crisp factory (which have lots and lots of hot potatoes in them). He must satisfy it's huge international audience, while avoiding the sort of commotion Julian Barnes caused with his adaptation of the French A Team ('Three Men And A Fool Will Solve Any Issues'). And he must tread carefully around the show's delicate portrayal of a homosexual relationship and rampant backwater racism.

Controversy is Amis's suit, no matter what the material, and there are few authors better equipped to resist a backlash, should it come. But if at some date, Amis finds him outnumbered in Waterstones, he may wish that he knew someone who knew someone who knew the A-Team.

NEXT WEEK: Read an exclusive excerpt.

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