A new television adaptation of period drama South Riding, partly filmed in Bradford, is to have a special screening in the city.

The three-part drama, starring David Morrissey and North Yorkshire-born Anna Maxwell Martin, was filmed over the autumn in Bradford, Leeds, Harrogate and the east coast.

The production – a sweeping saga about a Yorkshire community set against the backdrop of the Great Depression of the 1930s – is a remake of the 1974 TV series based on Winifred Holtby’s acclaimed novel.

The cast also includes Douglas Henshall, Penelope Wilton and Shipley actress Charlie Clark.

The drama, due to be broadcast on BBC1 early next year, is written by Andrew Davies, whose TV adaptations include Bleak House, Sense And Sensibility and Little Dorrit.

Mr Davies said: “What appealed to me most about South Riding is how fresh and relevant it feels, even though it was written and set in the Thirties.

“It’s a terrific love story, but also a portrait of a community in turmoil, with the country in recession, and bitter struggles between advocates of change and the forces of conservatism.”

Regional agency Screen Yorkshire, which supported the production, and the BBC are holding a premiere screening of the drama at the National Media Museum in January, followed by a question-and-answer session with Mr Davies.

South Riding is the story of Sarah Burton, who returns home to Yorkshire after her fiance is killed in the First World War.

Ambitious and independent, she becomes headmistress of a struggling girls’ school. As the country emerges from the Great Depression, she has to choose between her career and gentleman farmer Robert Carne.