Our favourite Northern book-to-screen adaptations

All Creatures Great and Small is a heartwarming series of autobiographical books by James Herriot, about a young veterinarian working in the Yorkshire Dales during the 1930s-40s. It has been adapted several times, but our favourite is the 1978 series starring Christopher Timothy.

This poignant novel follows a recently retired, unassuming man who leaves his stagnant life to walk over across England from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed. It was adapted into a film in 2023 starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton, and featuring filming locations in Yorkshire and Northumberland.

Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel has been adapted countless times, but when asked to vote on a favourite, the landslide winner among the NWN team was the 2011 film version featuring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender.

A young working-class boy in a Yorkshire mining town finds purpose and escape by training a wild kestrel names Kes. This modern classic by Barry Hines was adapted into the highly celebrated film Kes in 1969, directed by Ken Loach.

Newcastle children’s writer David Almond published his debut novel Skellig in 1998, a fantasy novel about a boy dealing with his baby sister’s serious illness when he finds a magical creature in his garage and nurses it back to health. It won several awards and was adapted for film in 2009, alongside stage and opera adaptations.

This 2019 folk horror novel by Preston author Andrew Michael Hurley is a haunting tale of grief over the loss of a child, set in the desolate Yorkshire dales. The 2023 film adaptation was directed by Daniel Kokotajlo and stars Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.

Durham author Benjamin Myers’ historical novel is set in 18th century Yorkshire, following a gang of weavers and land-workers as they embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history. Shane Meadows adapted it for a three-part BBC series in 2023, which serves as a prequel to Myers’ novel.

Alan Bennett’s true story of an eccentric, homeless woman who ‘temporarily’ parked her broken-down van in his London driveway – and stayed for 15 years – was made into a film in 2015 starring Maggie Smith as the titular Lady in the Van. Alan Bennett is from Leeds.

This Sporting Life was the debut novel from Wakefield writer and former Leeds rugby player David Storey, set in Yorkshire and following a man who tries to make it as a professional rugby league footballer. The 1963 kitchen sink drama film adaptation, directed by Lindsay Anderson and starring Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, William Hartnell and Alan Badel, was nominated for several Academy Awards, BAFTAs and Golden Globes.

The ITV crime drama series Vera, based on Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope, ran from  2011-2025 starring Brenda Blethyn as the principal character who is the detective chief inspector of the fictional Northumberland & City Police. The series was filmed across Newcastle, Northumberland, County Durham and North Yorkshire, including a farmhouse on Holy Island that was used as Vera’s home.

Virdee is a six-part BBC crime thriller series set in Bradford focusing on DCI Harry Virdee, a detective navigating a rising gang war and a serial killer targeting the Asian community. It was adapted from AA Dhand’s Bradford-set crime novel series, specifically its third instalment City of Sinners.

The wild West Yorkshire moors of Wuthering Heights set the scene for this dark tale of love, possession and revenge. Perhaps no adaptation will fully capture Emily Brontë’s masterpiece, but our adaptation of choice is the 1939 film starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier and directed by William Wyler.