In one of the opening scenes of South Riding, a group of mill-workers clatter across Titus Street in Saltaire.

Cut to a car trundling along the Cliff Road at Hornsea, then a scene unfolds in the Council chamber at Keighley Town Hall.

In just a few minutes, the BBC1 drama showcases some of Yorkshire’s diverse landscapes, setting the scene for a rich, panoramic portrait of a small-town community between the wars.

Filmed in the region last autumn, the three-part series breathes new life into Winifred Holtby’s 1935 novel, described as a 20th century classic. The cast includes Anna Maxwell Martin, David Morrissey, Penelope Wilton, John Henshaw and Bradford actor Peter Firth.

Set in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire, it starts with Sarah Burton taking up the post of headmistress of a girls’ school. Having lost her fiance in the trenches, Sarah is one of the “surplus two million” identified in 1920 as women unlikely to marry since their generation of men had been wiped out by war.

An ambitious and independent career woman, her fiery relationship with gentleman farmer Robert Carne (David Morrissey), an unlikely victim of the Great Depression, is one of several strands woven through a story full of humour, pathos and tragedy.

Acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies, whose TV credits include Bleak House and Sense And Sensibility, had to scale down the stories and characters which appear in the novel. “It’s a wonderful book which was due a revisit. We have just three episodes, so I had to leave out some characters,” said Andrew at a recent screening of South Riding at the National Media Museum.

“It was made into a television series in 1974, with 13 episodes, and if you watch it now, it feels a bit slow. While I would have liked more than three episodes, it does feel like a tight, well-paced, powerful drama now.

“I like the fact that viewers have a week between episodes, they talk about them and build up anticipation.”

Andrew believes South Riding has themes relevant to our economically-challenged age. “It felt frightfully modern,” he said. “What appealed most is how fresh and relevant it feels, even though it was written and set in the 1930s. It’s a terrific love story, but also a portrait of a community in turmoil, with the country in recession, and bitter struggles between the advocates of change, like Sarah the forward-thinking headmistress, and the forces of conservatism embodied in Robert Carne.

“While our Government is cutting and cutting, and rewarding the bankers, South Riding Council was spending its way out of the slump. Local government seemed so powerful in the 1930s.”

The series pulls no punches in its depiction of poverty and class struggle – in one scene, bright but impoverished scholarship girl Lydia Holly, played by 16-year-old Shipley actress Charlie Clark, cycles home from school to the shack where she lives with her large family, only to find her mother trying to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Ultimately, South Riding pays tribute to the indestructibility of the human spirit.

“It’s about idealism, and there aren’t many idealistic shows on TV today,” said Andrew. “There’s no real villain – everyone is trying to do something for the good of the community, in their own way.”

In one of the most memorable scenes, Lydia recites a poem she has written to her class. David Morrissey fell in love with the script after reading the poem. “That scene encapsulates everything about South Riding. And it’s not in the novel – those are purely Andrew’s words,” he said. “I read his screenplay, then I read the book and thought it was fantastic. It contains bigger stories than we can portray here, but if it had been made into a film, we’d have had a lot less than three hours.

“Because it’s not so well-known as a novel, people will be going to it fresh. The audience don’t know the characters and won’t be waiting for that one big scene that you get with more familiar pieces.”

Filming locations included Keighley and Morley town halls, the Connaught Rooms in Manningham, Saltaire and Salts Mill, All Saints infant school in Little Horton, Harewood House and clifftops and beaches on the East Coast. With a large chunk shot here, it does justice to Bradford’s City of Film status. Regional film agency Screen Yorkshire, a City of Film partner, provided crew and location support.

“It’s a wonderful part of the world to work in,” said David, who was last in the district filming dark police drama Red Riding. His other TV credits include State Of Play, Blackpool and Five Days. “It’s great here in terms of locations, the people and the way the film-making process is set up here. Not all regions have that.” South Riding is due to be shown on BBC1 at the end of February.