Saffron Cherry Productions to adapt Julia Chapman’s ‘The Dales Detective’ series

Caroline Roberts-Cherry & Sally Lindsay

UK-based Saffron Cherry Productions has optioned the rights to adapt Julia Chapman’s The Dales Detective series for the screen.

The mystery novels follow former Met detective Samson O’Brien as he returns to his hometown of Bruncliffe, in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales, to set up a detective agency. Once there he joins forces with Delilah Metcalfe, owner of the Dales Dating Agency, to solve a series of local crimes, supported by a unique and eccentric cast of characters who live in Bruncliffe.

Les Détectives Du Yorkshire

This will be the second screen adaptation of the novels, which were made into the primetime French TV series Les Détectives Du Yorkshire for France 3 last year. The eighth novel in the series, Date with Evil, will be published by Pan Macmillan in April.

Saffron Cherry’s UK adaptation is being written by Stewart Harcourt (Agatha Raisin, Poirot) and will be developed by founder & MD Caroline Roberts-Cherry and head of scripted Jane Langford, while creative director, actress and writer Sally Lindsay will also serve as executive producer.

The company is also behind the detective series The Madame Blanc Mysteries for Channel 5 and Acorn TV (a co-production with Clapperboard), as well as The World According To Grandpa for Channel 5’s Milkshake! and The Wonton Warrior for CBBC.

“We are incredibly excited to be developing The Dales Detective for television. Following the huge success of The Madame Blanc Mysteries, we feel incredibly well placed to hit all the right notes with this much-loved book series, and create a long running show loved by fans new and old,” said Roberts-Cherry.