A MAJOR new ITV series about the people who built the Settle-Carlisle railway line will start in the New Year.

Jericho is set in the north-western Yorkshire Dales in the 1870s and tells the story of the Wild West-style life of the railway navvies and their families as they built one of Britain's most scenic rail routes.

The eight-part series was filmed on location in Yorkshire, although none of the scenes were shot where the line actually runs, with most shooting taking place around Huddersfield.

The series takes its title from one of the overcrowded ramshackle settlements that housed workers on the Ribblehead section.

Producer creator and writer Steve Thompson, who numbers Sherlock and Doctor Who on his CV, said: “It was inspired by a true story. Jericho was a real place.

“It was a little shanty town in the shadow of the Ribblehead Viaduct. Shanty towns tended to be named after famous battles or biblical places. Jericho was the one at Ribblehead so we chose it for the name of the series.

“These places were like wild west towns. So the idea of making a British Western was new and exciting to me.

“We’ve called it the Culverdale Viaduct but it is based on Ribblehead.”

He went on to say: “Half of my family are from Yorkshire so it’s really nice to have been involved in something which is so bound up in the fabric of the place

“We were always particularly drawn to Ribblehead and to the work they did there.

“Particularly because the Yorkshire moors felt like a proper frontier. It felt like this was a place nobody had visited."

The Settle-Carlisle Railway has previewed a clip from one of the trailers of Jericho on its website, saying, “We can expect: a brilliant cast and some incredible CGI footage of Ribblehead viaduct under construction.

“It certainly looks like a high quality, thrilling production.”

The drama features Call The Midwife star Jessica Raine, Yorkshire-born Full Monty actor Mark Addy and Clarke Peters, of The Wire.

The first episode airs on January 7 at 9pm.