TV Pick of the Week: The Gallows Pole - review by Yvette Huddleston

The book brought to wider public attention the fascinating true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners, a group of counterfeiters, led by the charismatic David Hartley, operating in the Colne Valley in the 18th century. The gang collected coins, clipped them, then melted down the metal to create new coins which they distributed in the community. Their venture became one of the biggest frauds in British criminal history – with inevitable consequences for those involved.

What Meadows has done is to create a kind of sequel to the novel which explores the reasons why the gang did what they did. The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in the North blighted the once thriving cottage industries, leaving entire towns and villages destitute. It was out of desperation, not greed, that the counterfeiters acted – it was a question of survival.

The series opens atmospherically with Hartley (Michael Socha) walking across the moors dragging a sack behind him. He is clearly badly injured, bleeding from a stab wound, and he eventually collapses, surrounded by mysterious stag men who may or may not be a prophetic vision. Hartley has returned to his home village after a seven-year absence, just in time for his father’s funeral. Grace (Sophie McShera), the woman he was betrothed to and abandoned without explanation, is understandably not very welcoming at first, but most others are pleased to see him. It transpires that Hartley has been in Birmingham, up to no good and having seen the decline of his community, he proposes to help them.

Meadows, who is best known for his ground-breaking film 2006 This is England and its three TV sequels, has always worked with casts that are a combination of professional and first-time actors, collaborating with them on the script through improvisation. It means that the dialogue in his work is always naturalistic, authentic and believable. Here he elicits outstanding performances from everyone concerned.

Quite unlike anything else you will see on television, this is a story that, although set more than 250 years ago, resonates in every scene, finding the parallels with what is happening right now. Poverty and desperate measures are, sadly, not the sole reserve of the past. A powerful drama shot through with social history. An absolute must-see.