How Settle author Julia Chapman's Dales Detective book series was picked up for TV

The mystery series follows former Met detective Samson O'Brien as he returns to his hometown of Bruncliffe – a picturesque Yorkshire Dales setting based on Settle itself – to create a detective agency.

Once there he joins forces with Delilah Metcalfe, owner of the Dales Dating Agency, to solve a series of crimes, ably supported by the eccentric cast of characters who live in Bruncliffe and Delilah’s Weimaraner, Tolpuddle.

Now, the series is being developed for television in the UK (a small screen adaption has already been on in France) by Manchester-based Saffron Cherry Productions, which is run by Caroline Roberts-Cherry and Sally Lindsay, the actress known for her roles in shows such as Coronation Street and Still Open All Hours.

The show is still in the pre-production phase so there are no details of casting or locations to share just yet, but the author is thrilled it is being developed.

Julia says: “It's been a slow burner. It started quite slowly in the UK. France, on the other hand, just went insane straightaway - for some reason, Les Détectives du Yorkshire just really appealed. And there's a brand identity with Yorkshire, which is just fantastic. I think some of it comes from the start stage of the Tour de France in 2014. The branding for Yorkshire was very strong then.

“I now have fans coming up to me in France telling me that they're coming to Yorkshire on holiday this year, because of the book. For me, it's amazing.

"When it becomes overrun with French tourists then maybe I'll have to move,” she jokes.

Originally from Coventry, Julia later studied English at the University of Sheffield in the early 90s and says that writing professionally “was always the plan, but I came from a background where it wasn't a plan you could dare to dream for.

"It was a plan for people who could afford to take time to write and not get paid and try and get published. So it took me a while to get to the point where I was brave enough to think yeah, I can actually do this.”

Over the years she has lived in Japan, became a teacher of English as a foreign language, did a Master's in applied linguistics at Durham, and worked in Manchester while teaching asylum seekers and refugees. She has also lived in America, where there was work for her husband Mark, later moving to the auberge (inn) located in the Ariège-Pyrenees near Andorra.

“The idea when we bought it was to give me time to write and it took me four years to find that time,” she says. “And then when my first book was accepted by a publisher, you're asked straightaway: you've got 12 months to write a second book. So I no longer had time to run the business with my husband. It just wasn't worthwhile. So we literally got the Atlas out and decided where next in the world.

"I hadn’t spent much time as an adult in Britain but when I had we'd come to the Yorkshire Dales often and loved it. So we decided to come and have a look and I'm here 12 years now and it's the longest I've lived anywhere.”

Two books were published in the UK in 2017 and a third in 2018, while the first one was released in France in 2018 as well.

The first seven titles in the series have sold more than 200,000 copies throughout the world in the English language and have also been translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Estonian.

The eighth novel, Date with Evil, was published by Pan Macmillan in April.

The Dales Detective has been adapted as a primetime TV show in France, where the books regularly hit the bestseller charts, with a second series on the way.

In 2019, Caroline got in touch to say she was interested in developing the books for a television show here, and arranged to meet the author at a reading. She says: "I read two of them, I think, before I contacted her, and I just instantly fell in love with the series - the characters, the landscape, the plotting.

"I basically tracked her down to a Chorley bookshop for a reading and it was a really beneficial experience.

"Quite apart from getting to meet Julia, just sitting with other fans and hearing why they liked the books and the questions that they were asking Julia was basically all part and parcel of convincing me - not that I needed much convincing - we were on to a hit because people feel really passionately about the characters, and if you can get people to engage with the characters that's the biggest trick of all.”

The adaptation is being written by Stewart Harcourt (whose credits include Agatha Raisin, Poirot and Maigret) and developed by Caroline, head of scripted Jane Langford and Sally Lindsay as executive producer.

They have previously found success with the likes of The Madame Blanc Mysteries, which also starred Lindsay, for Channel 5 and Acorn TV.

Now Caroline is looking forward to bringing the Yorkshire landscape, which is an important part of Julia’s books, to the screen. “There's something for everyone in Yorkshire,” says Caroline, who was brought up in Huddersfield. “It's beautiful, it's rugged, the landscape is challenging, ever-changing. But I think it's a part of the world that appeals to the world. It's hard to think of another county in the UK that has translated in so many different forms and genres, in so many different countries.”