‘The Cadburys’: BritBox Drops First Look at Chocolate Empire Drama (Exclusive)
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The Hollywood Reporter can unveil first-look photos from BritBox and UKTV’s upcoming, sugar-sweet series, The Cadburys.
The six-episode drama, launching on BritBox in North America and on U in the U.K. in 2027, follows the visionary Cadbury family, the underdogs of the cocoa world, on their journey towards creating the world-famous Cadbury’s chocolate bar. Toby Regbo (Reign), Harry Gilby (The Last Kingdom) and Jessica Barden (The End of the F***ing World) star as the Cadbury siblings, Richard, George and Maria, with filming recently wrapping in Birmingham.
Freddie Highmore, best known for his role as the confection-obsessed Charlie Bucket in 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, serves as an executive producer.
See below the first-look images that offer a glimpse at the Cadbury family in 1860s Birmingham, from George’s obsession with creating the first solid eating cocoa to the romance between Richard Cadbury and Elizabeth Adlington (Poppy Gilbert) and the irresistible attraction between Maria Cadbury and Francis Fry (Ben Hardy).
The photos also provide a peek at John Cadbury (Pearce Quigley), Elizabeth’s mother, Dorothy (Joanna Scanlan), and fellow inventor, Joseph Rowntree (Mathew Baynton).
Executive producer Faye Ward tells THR that beneath the scale, ambition and extraordinary legacy of this family is “a deeply human story about a family navigating change, responsibility, and identity across generations.”
“These are exactly the kinds of stories we love to tell at Fable [Pictures],” she continues, “compelling dramas with rich emotional stakes, and a world audiences will love spending time in. Toby, Harry and Jess have encapsulated such magic in bringing the Cadbury siblings to life, alongside Poppy, Joanna and Ben and the rest of our fantastic cast, we can’t wait for them to bring this saga to the world.”
Previously announced under the working title of Chocolate Wars, the show is set in a world that doesn’t yet have chocolate as we know it today. 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 into one of the world’s most beloved confectioners — if they can only learn to trust and rely on each other. Elsewhere, their sister Maria (Barden) 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 and is forced to question where her true loyalties really lie.
Additional cast includes Felicity Montagu, Adam Hashmi, Oli Green and Alexander Butler. The series also introduces Leah Swain-Heath, Maisie Britton and Emma Montrochet.
The Cadburys is a commission with UKTV and Sony Pictures Television. The series is produced by Fable Pictures, in association with Alfresco Pictures, and written by Chloë Mi Lin Ewart (Curfew, All Creatures Great and Small).
The Cadburys is executive produced by Faye Ward, Freddie Highmore, Hannah Price and Claire Londy with Helen Perry for UKTV and Jess O’Riordan and Jon Farrar for BritBox. The series is directed by Tom McKay (After the Flood, Ten Pound Poms) and Jill Robertson (The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Ludwig) with Hannah Farrell, co-creative director from Fable Pictures, as series producer and Jo Farrugia as casting director. Chloë Mi Lin Ewart leads the writing team, alongside Eve Hedderwick Turner and Karim Khan.
Sony Pictures Television will handle worldwide sales as international distributor, with Creative UK providing regional support through the ERDF-funded West Midlands Production Fund. SPT will introduce global clients to The Cadburys as part of the studio’s 2026 MIPCOM slate. Fable Pictures is an SPT-backed company.