It features Iain De Caestecker as the title character following his arrival at veterinary college, alongside Amy Manson and Ben Lloyd-Hughes as fellow students Whirly Tyson and Rob McAloon.

Topics which feature in the story lines include the subjugation of women, the treatment of students by Professor Gunnell, and the rise of the fascist movement in the UK.

Announced in July 2010 with the title Young James, the series was devised by Johnny Byrne, a scriptwriter on All Creatures Great and Small, and consultant producer Kate Croft.

This was an amazing story and when he first told me – this was about 10 years ago – I knew it had to be a TV series.The series was produced by Koco Drama, a Shed Media company, and written by their executives Ann McManus and Eileen Gallagher.

[5] He later said that "the last thing we needed was a bloated, plodding period drama", and he found the lighting "more appropriate to a sombre Dickens adaptation than tales of a charming young Scot bumbling his way through veterinary college".