Red Riding: How a Yorkshire Crime Classic Was Made
- The Red Riding television adaptation began when producer Andrew Eaton approached the screenwriter in 2006 about adapting David Peace's quartet of Yorkshire crime novels.
- The series draws on the real cases of Peter Sutcliffe and Stefan Kiszko, with Peace describing his source novels as 'fiction torn from the facts.'
- Production deliberately avoided flattering depictions of Yorkshire, using sets featuring burnt-out cars and derelict scenery, to the occasional dismay of local residents.
The screenwriter behind the television adaptation of Red Riding has recalled how a chance approach from a producer in 2006 led them towards one of the most unsettling crime dramas in recent British broadcasting history — a project they describe as simultaneously compelling and deeply uncomfortable.
A quartet of novels, a reluctant draw
The writer, who had been collaborating with director Michael Winterbottom, was approached that year by producer Andrew Eaton, who asked whether they might be interested in adapting a quartet of novels by David Peace. On reading the first — titled 1974 — the reaction was candid: drawn to it and repelled at the same time. The material was characterised as strong meat, full of anger and injustice.
The novels are anchored in real criminal history, most notably the cases of Peter Sutcliffe and Stefan Kiszko, though Peace's approach was always one of heightened, stylised fiction. Peace himself described the work as "fiction torn from the facts" — a formulation that captures the tension between documentary fidelity and literary licence that runs through the entire project.
Sets, shopping trolleys, and a grim Yorkshire aesthetic
On the production side, the commitment to an unglamourised vision of the county was uncompromising. Sets were built around burnt-out cars and overturned shopping trolleys, a visual shorthand for post-industrial decline that did not go unnoticed by those living nearby. Locals, it is recalled, would sometimes suggest that a nice floral arrangement might improve matters — a response the production team treated with gentle bemusement. As the screenwriter acknowledged, the show was hardly an advert for Yorkshire.
The resulting series drew on a moment in northern English history marked by institutional failure, police misconduct, and crimes that shook public confidence in the justice system — questions that remain potent more than four decades on from the period the novels depict.
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