A Woman of Substance: Barbara Taylor Bradford's epic tale gets a raunchy reboot

The eight-part series is a remake of another Channel 4 adaptation released over 40 years ago and stars Vera’s Brenda Blethyn as the Yorkshire powerhouse and House of Guinness star Jessica Reynolds as two versions of the lead character Emma in different time periods.

The series opens in Seventies New York where the older Emma is desperate to exact revenge before switching to the younger version of the character who is working in a grand house in rural Yorkshire in 1911 being warned to be careful of her “ambition".

The authenticity of filming in Yorkshire with local crew and talent, was hugely important to Taylor Bradford when she agreed to the reboot. Despite living in New York for 50 years until her death in November 2024 aged 91, the novelist always kept close ties to her roots.

Trustee of her foundation and her closest friend Vicki Downey, who attended the recent Yorkshire premiere in Leeds, says: “When she was approached about A Woman of Substance she was very excited but also adamant that it would be filmed in the North and not on a set.”

The series co-writer Katherine Jakeways agrees: “The actual star of the show is the beautiful landscape of Yorkshire. It was vital to us to film in locations around here for Barbara and we discussed that. Yorkshire runs through the veins of the show. Some of the cast weren’t from Yorkshire, and they said that living there for months while they were filming, and having local crew, made them fall in love with Yorkshire’s spirit. I couldn’t imagine this story being set in any other county. Emma Harte is a true Yorkshire matriarch.”

The period drama, which starts in 1911 and moves through the decades to the 1970s to Emma in her 80s, features locations such as Ilkley Moor’s Cow & Calf Rocks, Keighley Train Station, the museum streets of Beamish and historic Broughton Hall near Skipton. Broughton was also used for filming in the original series as the location for Fairley Hall which is where Emma first works as a teen house servant for the Fairley family. An affair with the son of the house, Edwin Fairley, leaves her pregnant, abandoned and alone and fires her ambition to succeed and wreak revenge on the Fairleys.

In the original version of the TV adaptation in 1984, Hollywood star Deborah Kerr played older Emma, Jenny Seagrove was young Emma with newcomer Liam Neeson as her close friend Blackie O’Neill. The mini-series propelled the young actors to fame and with audiences of 14 million, it gave Channel 4 its highest ever audience figures to date.

Jakeways admits that she and co-writer Roanne Bardsley have felt the pressure. “The series was huge. But having said that, we are doing something fresh and new, and it feels very modern. Why wouldn’t you bring it back? It’s such an irresistible, brilliant story, a timeless tale of a woman who has nothing and goes on to have everything. We couldn’t resist it really. She’s such a wonderful character and we were determined to keep her funny, fiesty, charismatic and sexy at both ends of her life. It felt time that a new generation got to share the fun. I hope we keep the support of the diehard fans and bring a new audience to it, and we hope it reinvigorates Barbara’s legacy."

It is a revenge novel with powerful themes of love, betrayal, class and gender. Is this why A Woman of Substance and the character of Emma Harte have remained so iconic?

Roanne Bardsley believes so: “It’s a book with really big feelings. It’s epic. Emma has her heart broken, she goes through grief and loss, and has these huge romantic love stories, but at the core of it is ambition.”

Jakeways adds: “It’s the ultimate girl power story, it was ahead of its time when the book was published nearly 50 years ago, but it’s still relevant now. It resonates with people and shows what hard work can achieve." She says she spoke to Barbara Taylor Bradford over Zoom during lockdown about the series development. The author read and enjoyed the first episode. The remake is going international. “It’s already got a US broadcaster and it’s been sold to Canada, New Zealand and Australia,” says Bardsley.

At the premiere, Brenda Blethyn, 80, explained that she felt a real affinity to the character of Emma. “She’s an inspirational character who succeeds against the odds. Emma grew up in poverty as I did, and it resonated with me. We had no electricity and went to bed by candlelight. My parents worked in service in a big posh house and they earned a pittance. I wished they’d had Emma’s chutzpah.”

She also admits that she has fallen in love with Yorkshire during filming. “I’d love to do a walking holiday here.”

A Woman of Substance is the first of a seven-book saga about the fortunes of Emma Harte’s business empire and her family across three generations which begs the question, will there scope for further series?

“It’s such a big novel that we haven't done the whole book in series one, there’s still a lot more to tell,” says Jakeways. “We’d love to think there might be another series but we don’t know yet. Let’s hope so.”

Vicki Downey says that Barbara would have been thrilled by the latest version and the fact that the premiere was in Leeds rather than London. “I know she was looking down. I felt like BTB was on my shoulder. I carry her with me. Jessica Reynolds is fabulous and I know Brenda was an actor she really admired, and she would whole heartedly approved of her as older Emma. She saw herself as a Yorkshire woman through and through. I bought her favourite mug that she used every day which said: Just A Yorkshire Lass.”

Barbara Taylor Bradford started writing in her 40s after a career in journalism which included working at the Yorkshire Evening Post, and wrote a book a year for 40 years. Her novels have sold 92 million copies and been translated into 40 languages in 90 countries and made her a wealthy woman.

“Emma was her favourite character. She put a lot of her own joys and struggles into creating her. Ten of her books were made into films and mini series back in the 80s and early 90s. It’s important for us that her legacy continues,” says Downey.

The two women were close friends for the last 20 years of her life after meeting in ex pat circles in New York, becoming particularly close after the novelist lost her beloved husband of 55 years Bob Bradford in 2019.

“The last couple of years were tough for her medically and I saw her every day,” she says. “But she was always glamorous, even at the end. Always beautifully coiffed hair, make-up and pearls. I remember once at a charity event I organised in New York, Barbara came and Boris Johnson, when he was then Prime Minister, was also a guest. He came over to Barbara and turned around to fellow guest and said: Do you know, this woman is the Grandmother of British Fiction? To which she quipped back: I think you mean Mother! She was a powerhouse but also a great friend and mentor.

“We have a little phrase that we use: Be more Barbara. The outpouring of love we had from all over the world when she passed was phenomenal. It was wonderful for us to get this new series to all of her fans because I know it’s what they want. She never thought so but she really was a A Woman of Substance.”

A Woman of Substance is now available to stream on Channel 4