Q&A with showrunner and writer Katherine Jakeways

How well did you know the original book and series before you took on this project?

I knew that Barbara Taylor Bradford was a lot of people’s favourite author, and I remember people’s mums reading the book when I was younger, but I only picked it up when I heard about the project. So much of it was immediately so exciting from my point of view, especially this amazing central character of Emma, who is irresistible in terms of her passion and charm, she’s a force of nature. Then there’s a brilliant ensemble of other characters with their own stories to tell. And the idea of seeing Emma at both ends of her adult life is so moving, it really appealed to me. I’ve deliberately stayed away from the original mini-series because I didn't want to be influenced by what they'd done.

Why did you feel it was a good time to shoot a new adaptation of the book?

Times have changed much less than we might have hoped, in terms of how extraordinary it feels for a woman from a working-class background to make such a success of her life. Of course, it isn’t quite as unusual in 2026 for a woman to be as successful as Emma Harte, but it still feels hugely relevant to show her class struggle and gender struggle. Another thing I loved about the book is that even though there are brilliant love stories within it, and soaring, passionate scenes, Emma’s life isn't defined by her lovers. Instead, it is absolutely defined by her work and by her determination to succeed, and it's surprising how rare that that still feels, particularly in period dramas, but even in a modern context.

I was very conscious of how fans of the book might react, and I know there are many. My mother-in-law was very much of the generation of women who loved the book when it first came out, she’s a big fan of Barbara Taylor Bradford, so I had her voice in my ear. At every stage of the process, I would ask myself, “What would Wendy think?!” and the whole team would be conscious of not upsetting the die-hard fans. Hopefully we’ve kept them happy while also making it feel fresh and relevant, with a modern sensibility. It was amazing having [co-writer] Roanne Bardsley working with me on the scripts too.

You describe Emma Harte as a feminist icon, what makes her so special?

She’s incredible. We see her go from being a poverty-stricken teenager in Yorkshire in 1911, to being the richest woman in New York as she approaches her 80th birthday. Her family had nothing when she was growing up, and now she owns multi-million dollar businesses and has department stores all over the world. The first episode opens in New York in the 1970s, and then you go back and see how she made herself such a success, and, crucially, what was driving her to do that. Emma spends her whole life trying to make money and be respected, in order to keep her family safe. Her children have had very different upbringings to Emma, and they've had moments of thinking that their mother may have put work first. But Emma Harte gets it wrong far less than the rest of us! She has always tried to be there for the ballet concerts and bedtimes, and done her best to have it all, which of course is something we all strive for. She’s a flawed super-woman!

You must be thrilled with the incredible ensemble cast you’ve brought together for the series?

Yes it was vital to get the casting right and it’s been so exciting. We knew we needed to get an amazing actor to play older Emma, someone with a twinkle in her eye, and we really lucked out. Brenda [Blethyn] is such a hero, I’m a big fan, and I used to love her sitcom Outside Edge and the work she did with Mike Leigh. She's so clever, sharp and insightful, and so funny on screen and off. And then Jessica [Reynolds], wow, she’s amazingly talented and was such a trooper – she worked all the hours in all weathers carrying the load of Emma Harte, she gave everything to it. I hope you’ll fall in love with lots of the characters, the cast are so brilliant.

Was it challenging to write a story that spanned so many decades?

It was a gift, actually, because you get all the grit and beauty of the Yorkshire Moors, with young Emma’s striving and passion, but then every episode you get to spend a bit of time in New York in 1975. We had to make sure the 1970s scenes felt purposeful and that both timelines were informing each other, so we went back and forth on that a lot – it was a bit of a crossword. I hope we got it right and the audience feels glad to be in both worlds. The New York scenes were filmed in Liverpool, but they look so authentic, exciting and buzzy.

Your background is in comedy, were you keen to bring out all the humour in the story?

Yes, my instinct is always to put humour in almost everywhere, because you can't really root for a character, family or relationship unless there's humour at its heart. Emma is bright and sparky, but I wouldn't be so keen to spend time with her, aged 17 or 79, if she wasn’t really funny. We wanted to make her an irresistible, well-rounded character who you were keen to be with. Even in the darkest moments in life, people make each other laugh. Emma lives an extraordinary life, but hopefully she’s relatable in the smaller things that she does. We don't all go on to become moguls in New York, sadly, but we all suffer loss and feel love and laugh. I hope the series is great fun for the audience, escapist and beautiful to look at too – the Yorkshire Moors gave us so much beauty.

How did you update some of the mental health storylines for a 2026 audience?

We were very conscious that we wanted to bring in a new audience and make the story feel exciting to younger viewers as well as the original fans. We’ve got different language for some of the experiences on screen now, even though the characters don't. It’s still the same story, but if you look at Adele for example, she’s written as the mad woman in the attic and there’s no real examination of what that might mean. Adele is just stuck in her room while her husband goes about his business downstairs. Of course, in modern terms, we can see that she’s agoraphobic, she's an alcoholic and she’s struggling with anxiety. Adele is possibly one of my favourite characters, because she was this charismatic bright young thing, who’s now too scared to leave her bedroom, and she’s so complicated and heart-breaking. There’s much more understanding of mental health issues now than there was when the book was written, so we’ve been able to bring a 2026 sensibility to the story without hugely changing anything.