A VISIT to the Bronte Parsonage Museum at Haworth as a child has led to a lifelong love of the literary siblings’ work for one award-winning writer.

Sally Wainwright said she’d always retained a fascination with the sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne – and their writings.

“I’ve been interested in the Brontes for as long as I can remember,” she said.

“They achieved so much in such little time.

“What’s interesting to a contemporary audience is their domestic situation; three women living with an alcoholic brother and trying to get published. Women at that time lived vicariously through their brothers.

“The Bronte sisters were three geniuses under one roof, women in a male world. I feel so privileged, as a Yorkshire woman, to write about these fabulous Yorkshire women.”

Ms Wainwright wrote and directed To Walk Invisible, a 2016 television film about the Bronte sisters.

It was shot in Haworth and at nearby Penistone Hill, where a meticulously-detailed replica of the family’s parsonage home and surrounding streets and buildings was constructed.

The screening sparked a huge surge in extra visitors to the parsonage, including many local people who hadn’t previously been to the museum.

Staff reported positive feedback from the public about the 90-minute film, which also received universal acclaim.

The museum’s Twitter feed was inundated with rave reviews.

Local councillors also expressed their admiration for To Walk Invisible and spoke of its potential long-term effect on boosting Haworth’s tourist trade.

Another of Ms Wainwright’s TV ‘masterpieces’ is currently being screened – Last Tango in Halifax.

She and star Sarah Lancashire attended a special screening staged ahead of the hotly-anticipated latest series.

The BAFTA-winning BBC drama, about a couple who find love in later life, is largely shot in Calderdale – but locations in the Bradford district have appeared in previous series.

The show’s return comes four years after the last series aired as two Christmas specials.

Fans were invited to take part in a prize draw for tickets to the exclusive screening, which took place at Square Chapel Arts Centre in Halifax.

Last Tango in Halifax, which began in 2012, is the story of rekindled passion between widowed pensioners Celia Dawson and Alan Buttershaw, played by Anne Reid and Sir Derek Jacobi.

Celia and Alan first met in the 1950s but lost touch. Reunited on Facebook over half a century later, they run into ongoing problems with their disapproving grown-up daughters, Caroline, a headteacher, and Gillian, a farmer, and their own families.

Ms Wainwright also penned another TV hit, Gentleman Jack.

The series – about pioneering landowner and diarist Anne Lister, who lived at Shibden Hall – was one of the biggest television successes of last year.

The BBC series, starring Suranne Jones, was partly filmed in Bradford district.

Last year it was announced that Ms Wainwright was to receive the Freedom of the Borough of Calderdale in recognition of her contribution to the area, which features as a backdrop in many of her dramas.

The Bradford UNESCO City of Film team was involved in helping cast and crew to film locally on both To Walk Invisible and Gentleman Jack.

Several Bradford Council departments – including highways, countryside and rights of way, parking services and emergency planning – were involved, all co-ordinated by the Bradford Film Office.

Ms Wainwright’s other TV dramas include Happy Valley, Scott and Bailey and Keeping Up With The Braithwaites, about a lottery-winning family.