ACCLAIMED director of This Is England Shane Meadows is to create a television series set in West Yorkshire for the BBC.

Meadows, whose film and subsequent TV series on skinhead culture in Northern England drew critical acclaim and cult status, is to adapt the book The Gallows Pole for TV.

The Gallows Pole, a novel by Benjamin Myers, fictionalises the true story of David Hartley and the Cragg Vale Coiners and is set during the Industrial Revolution in 18th Century West Yorkshire.

It follows Hartley as he assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to become counterfeiters, starting a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history.

Meadows said: “The Gallows Pole is an incredible true story, little known outside of Yorkshire, about a group of very naughty men and women who started clipping and counterfeiting coins out in the Moors, as a way to keep themselves and their community alive.

“I’ve never made a period drama before so I’m absolutely buzzing, and to be doing it with Piers Wenger at the BBC, his incredible team, and Element Pictures is nothing short of an honour.”

It is set in Cragg Vale, south of Mytholmroyd in Calderdale. Adverts were put out earlier this year for actors based in West Yorkshire - including people with no previous experience - to audition for the show.

The Gallows Pole will be produced by Element Pictures and executive produced by Piers Wenger and Tom Lazenby for the BBC.

Benjamin Myers' fictional adaptation of the story was released to critical acclaim, picking up a Roger Deakin Award and the 2018 Walter Scott Price for historical fiction.

Meadows is one of the UK's most celebrated directors, and alongside the This Is England series is also known for the film Dead Man's Shoes and TV series The Virtues.