As of February 2022, what show is Britain's Channel 4 highest viewing audience?

"A Woman of Substance" is a British-American three-part television drama serial, produced in 1984. It is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Barbara Taylor Bradford.

The drama was aired by Channel 4 in the UK over three nights from 2 to 4 January 1985. The broadcast of the final part on 4 January drew 13.8 million viewers, which remains the channel's highest ever audience. It was shown in limited syndication in the United States several weeks before the British transmission, in order to qualify for the 1985 Primetime Emmy Award.

Emma Harte is the protagonist played by actresses Deborah Kerr and Jenny Seagrove (as Young Emma Harte). Her story begins as a maid at Fairley Hall when she is 14 years old. She falls in love with her master's son, Edwin Fairley. She becomes pregnant and he "lets her down" by refusing to marry her. She flees to Leeds at 15, so as not to disgrace her father and brothers.

In Leeds, Emma seeks out her friend Blackie O'Neil. Her daughter Edwina is born when she is 16 years old. After more than a year of scrimping, saving, working day and night and creating a home business on the side, she finally saves enough to open her own shop. It is the beginning of an empire so vast she eventually buys everything the Fairleys own.