A Woman of Substance

What it’s about

Emma Harte starts the 20th century as a kitchen maid in Yorkshire. Pregnant and abandoned by an aristocratic lover, she is cast out by the family she served and vows revenge. She starts with a small shop and expands into the textile industry in Leeds over twenty years. By the 1970s she is a powerful business magnate, but at eighty a new betrayal from within her own family threatens everything she has built.

What hooks you

Brenda Blethyn plays Emma Harte in her later years, with Jessica Reynolds as the young Emma. The series is written by Barbara Taylor Bradford and directed by John Hardwick and Richard Senior. It spans six decades of social change.

Who it’s for

It is worth a look for anyone who enjoys multi-generational family sagas with strong female leads, and for those drawn to stories of ambition, loyalty, and revenge set against the backdrop of 20th-century England.