Leeds BBC show Better: Watch stars including Leila Fazard turn out to Everyman cinema premiere at Trinity Leeds

The red carpet event and screening of the show’s first of five parts is taking place tonight ahead of its broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Monday.

Lead actor Leila Farzad told The Yorkshire Post that she “loved spending time in Leeds”.

She said: "I felt very welcomed and just fell in love with it.”

Referring to her lead role, she added: “I’m in pinch myself mode.

"I have to take a moment to really absorb it, otherwise I think it would just flash by.”

She liked the script because it was a “female-led drama which wasn’t just a procedural, whodunnit cop drama. It was layered with morality and redemption and choices that we make and what propels humans to behave in the way they do.”

Better is the story of one woman’s epic battle towards redemption, to reclaim the honour and honesty she handed over to a man many years ago.

It’s been produced by award-winning content studio SISTER (Chernobyl, The Split, This is Going to Hurt), and was shot entirely in Leeds and the wider West Yorkshire area.

The story explores how 19 years ago, when DI Lou Slack (played by Leila Farzad) was a young police officer at her lowest ebb and Col McHugh (played by Andrew Buchan) was a low-ranking but ambitious newcomer to the Leeds underworld, their paths crossed, and they struck a deal that changed their lives forever.

The bargain allowed Col to become very rich and powerful, and Lou to turn around her failing career. A complex but special bond between the pair was forged, and so began Lou’s gradual slide into corruption.

Over time her criminality seeped into every aspect of Lou’s life and morphed into something far more sinister and dangerous as the stakes grew.

But when Lou’s family is brought to the brink of a tragedy that would tear apart everything she has built, she finds her conscience.

She concludes that to find her redemption she must bring down the man she has come to love like a brother.

Asked previously what it was like filming in Leeds, Farzad said: “It was an absolute treat. It's such a beautiful city. Being able to see the town hall every day, filming in places like the corn market exchange, there's wonderful places to eat and being by the canal... it's a real mixture of old and new.

"It was incredible to immerse myself in it for the time that I was shooting there. Ninety per cent of the crew were based in Manchester or Leeds so talking to them every day really helped fuel the motor of Lou Slack and imbued me with an extra something.”