‘The Cadburys’ First Look Is Sweet as Chocolate

Filming has officially wrapped on the UKTV/BritBox co-production The Cadburys, a dramatic retelling of how the British chocolatier invented the candy bar as we know it today during the Victorian era and became a dominant force in the cocoa industry. The new series is based on author (and distant family relative) Deborah Cadbury’s non-fiction book, Chocolate Wars: The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World’s Greatest Chocolate Makers. 

Billed as a “warm-hearted family drama,” the six-part limited series introduces the visionary Cadbury siblings, Richard, George and Maria, the underdogs of the cocoa world, on their journey to create the world-famous Cadbury’s chocolate bar. All three major English chocolate firms of the 19th century – Cadbury, Fry, and Rowntree – came from Quaker families who aimed to “do well by doing good.”

In the case of the Cadbury clan, in between inventing the chocolate bar (and other confectionery sweets), they also wrote groundbreaking papers on poverty, published authoritative studies of the Bible, and campaigned against human rights abuses. As Cadbury grew to compete internationally, the family found itself in a showdown pitting Quaker tradition against the cutthroat tactics of their American and Swiss rivals.

Here’s the synopsis:

In 1860s Birmingham, when chocolate as we know it doesn’t yet exist, two very different brothers, Richard and George Cadbury, find themselves in charge of their family’s failing cocoa business. Together, they have the radical genius and burning ambition to turn Cadbury’s into one of the world’s most beloved confectioners – if they can only learn to trust and rely on each other. Their sister Maria is navigating her own role within the family and the business, but things become even more complicated when she falls in love with Cadbury’s biggest rival, Francis Fry, and is forced to question where her true loyalties really lie. Infused with historical delights and magical invention, The Cadburys is about how we build, break and rebuild the bonds of family – and how the sweetest things in life are rarely simple.

The series will be led by Harry Gilby (Boarders) as George Cadbury, Toby Regbo (A Woman of Substance) as Richard Cadbury, Jessica Barden (Dune: Prophecy) as Maria Cadbury, and Pearce Quigley (The Gentlemen) as their father, John Cadbury. Poppy Gilbert (The Other Bennett Sister) co-stars as Richard's eventual wife, Elizabeth Adlington; and Joanna Scanlan (Riot Women) as her mother, Dorothy Adlington. Mathew Baynton (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder) plays fellow British chocolatier Joseph Rowntree, and Ben Hardy (The Woman in White) is Francis Fry.

Additional cast includes Felicity Montagu (Tom Jones), Adam Hashmi (Bridgerton), Oli Green (The Crown), and Alexander Butler (Fackham Hall), plus small-screen newcomers Leah Swain-Heath, Maisie Britton, and Emma Montrochet.

Chloë Mi Lin Ewart (Beyond Paradise) leads the writing team, alongside Eve Hedderwick Turner (Anne Boleyn) and Karim Khan (All Creatures Great & Small). Directors Tom McKay (After the Flood) and Jill Robertson (Dalgleish) split helming duties, with Hannah Farrell producing. Faye Ward, Freddie Highmore, Hannah Price, and Claire Londy executive produce the series, alongside Helen Perry for UKTV and Jess O’Riordan & Jon Farrar for BritBox.

The Cadburys is set to debut on UKTV in the U.K., followed by streaming on BritBox in the U.S. in the first half of 2027.

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