Saffron Cherry Secures TV Rights for The Dales Detective

Saffron Cherry Productions (The Madame Blanc Mysteries) has secured the rights to develop Julia Chapman’s The Dales Detective book series for television.

The mystery series follows former Met detective Samson O’Brien as he returns to his hometown in the Yorkshire Dales to set up a detective agency. Once there, he ends up joining forces with the owner of Dales Dating Agency to solve a string of local crimes.

The Dales Detective books were previously made into a prime-time TV show in France, where it became a ratings winner.

The English adaptation is being developed by Saffron Cherry’s Caroline Roberts-Cherry and Jane Langford (Hollyoaks, Metastasis, Jordskott season two, Origin) and written by Stewart Harcourt (Agatha Raisin, Poirot, Maigret). Saffron Cherry’s Sally Lindsay will serve as executive producer.

The book series, published by Pan Macmillan, has seven novels out so far. The eighth book, Date with Evil, is due in April.

“We are thrilled that Julia has trusted us with her novels and are excited by the adaptation of [The Dales Detective’s A Date with Evil] that Stuart Harcourt has delivered,” Lindsay, creative director of Saffron Cherry said.

Roberts-Cherry, managing director of Saffron Cherry, added, “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.”

“The passion which Caroline, Sally and the team at Saffron Cherry have brought to this project so far has been amazing and I’m over the moon that Stewart Harcourt is on board for the screenplay,” Chapman said. “I know Samson, Delilah and the good folk of Bruncliffe have found the best of all possible homes.”