For those hoping to follow in the footsteps of the Cragg Vale Coiners – minus the forgery and murders – there's a map for you. David Hartley was buried here in 1770 after being executed by hanging at York Tyburn for the part he played in leading the Cragg Vale Coiners, though the only charges he actually faced were for clipping a Guinea with another man. Piers Wenger, Director of BBC Drama, adds: “Shane’s talent for spotting and working with the newest and most authentic talent is second to none and will play a key role in setting this drama apart. It’s an honour to be working with Shane, our friends at Element, and our partners at A24, to see this amazing story start to come to life.” Dodgy Yorkshire accents are at a minimum. The Gallows Pole's first-time actors were selected for their accents. As the gang's riches grew too big for higher powers to ignore, the Houses of Parliament were drawn into a debate over their affairs. The final straw came on 8 November 1769, when several members of the Coiners murdered an excise officer, William Deighton, who was sent to investigate them.

Initially, clipping and forging coins was a way for weavers, whose livelihoods had been eroded by mechanisation, to put food on the table. But greed soon took over and the Coiners' organised and prolific production of counterfeit coins led to the near-collapse of the British economy in the mid-18th century.

Collaborating again with casting director Shaheen Baig (The Virtues), Shane Meadows says of his cast: “Putting this cast together, with the undying support of Shaheen Baig and her amazing team, has been an absolute joy. To be working with actors I’ve grown up with and/or have been desperate to work with, alongside oodles of incredible ‘as yet’ undiscovered Yorkshire-based talent, is an absolute honour and I’ve not been this passionate about shooting a project in years!

In March 1775 Matthew Normanton failed to appear before the court and was found guilty of coining in his absence and sentenced to death. Days later, as Constables turned up at his home to arrest him, Normanton fled along the valley, but was found shortly after hiding in bushes. He was executed by hanging in York on 15 th April and his body hung in its chains at Beacon Hill in Halifax, alongside that of Thomas, as a warning to others. It was during the workshopping process with the actors I realised there was also a story to tell leading up to Ben’s incredible book. A prequel that not only allowed us to understand ‘why’ the Cragg Vale Coiners did what they did, but maybe fall in love with them a smidge while they did it. It may have turned into one of the biggest crimes in British history, but it was pulled off by a bunch of destitute farmers and weavers doing what they had to to survive, and I think people will resonate with that. For their cut, associates of the gang would smuggle the fake coins and clipped coins into circulation. The criminal enterprise was highly successful; the weavers of Calder Valley no longer starved and families like the Hartleys once again became wealthy. Still, there's a bit of humour in the actual titles written in quasi-Georgian gibberish. Director Shane Meadows is described as 'Purvey'r of Scenes' and editor Lucas Roche is titled 'Cutteth'r' while Goat are billed as 'Most Wonderous Troubadours'. With end-of-the-world imagery shooting about interspersed with scenes from the actual drama and The Mystery Lights buzzing away, it's all a bit Peaky Blinders goth – after a few magic mushrooms.Up in Yorkshire in the 1760s, the industrial revolution was steaming ahead at full pelt. The rich were getting richer, through the building of cotton mills and factories, while the poor grew poorer. Suffering ensued. There was great poverty, especially in the area of Cragg Vale, near Hebden Bridge, which was populated by weavers, land-workers and their families.