In the 1760s, the Calder Valley in Yorkshire appointed its own king. With the traditional cottage industry of the area facing ruin as factories and mills threatened to radically alter both the landscape and economy, times were tough. Only landlords were getting rich, or even getting by, in this neglected part of England.
But then local lad David Hartley returned from Birmingham with a literal money-making scheme that would transform the community and almost bring down the Bank of England.
Shane Meadows writes and directs this adaptation of Ben Myers’ compelling, brutally poetic 2017 novel The Gallows Pole – expanding the scarcely believable true story (and the myths and the legends that go with it) of one of the biggest and most audacious frauds in British history.
“I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard it,” says Meadows. “When I read Ben’s book
