Liam McMahon as Sam Hardacre, Claire Cooper as Mary Hardacre & Julie Graham as Ma. (Channel 5) The Hardacres (Series Generic)

The Hardacres: What To Expect From Channel 5’s New Series

Liam McMahon as Sam Hardacre, Claire Cooper as Mary Hardacre & Julie Graham as Ma. (Channel 5) The Hardacres (Series Generic)

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The Hardacres: What To Expect From Channel 5’s New Series

By Olivia Emily

3 months ago

The first episode is available to stream now

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It’s been a good year for Channel 5, with The Wives, The Teacher and The Night Caller all making a splash. But will The Hardacres be the next big thing? Here’s what you need to know.

Channel 5’s The Hardacres: Plot, Cast, Filming Locations

The Hardacres (Channel 5)

What Is The Hardacres About?

The Hardacres is a rags-to-riches family saga tracing the lives of the working class Hardacre family in 1890s Yorkshire. Patriarch Sam and his eldest son Joe are dockers, while his wife Mary, daughter Liza and mother-in-law Ma are fish gutties. They’re all hard workers, and loyal to the local community, surrounded by like minded hard workers who just get on with it, even in the face of the dockers’ odious boss, Mr Shaw.

But when an accident befalls Sam, everything changes – and the family must look for graft elsewhere. In a stroke of luck, the family manages to turn its fortunes around, and they find themselves rich beyond their wildest dreams. But waiting for them in the upper echelons of society is a whole new set of challenges.

Maggie (Ella Maria Carmen), Mrs Henderson (Paula Wolfenden), Mrs Dryden (Ingrid Craigie) & Beesley (Mark Doherty). (Channel 5)

Is The Hardacres Based On A True Story?

No, The Hardacres is not based on a true story, but it is based on a book. Published in 1976, C.L. Skelton’s novel Hardacre follows generations of the Hardacre family from the Victorian era to the 1950s across 600 pages. In 1984, Skelton published a follow-up, Hardacre’s Luck, picking the family story back up in the 1950s.

Writers Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan adapted Skelton’s work for the small screen. ‘Amy and I are both from working-class backgrounds,’ McLaughlan shared, ‘and it’s really rare to have shows about working-class people actually written by working-class people so that you get that authentic feel, so that was something that excited us from the beginning. And an opportunity to write about a clever working-class family, so the joke isn’t on them – which, again, is something that you see in a lot of working-class comedies and dramas.’

Liza Hardacre (Shannon Lavelle), Tinny the Dog, Ma (Julie Graham), Harry Hardacre (Zak Ford-Williams), Joe Hardacre (Adam Little), Mary Hardacre (Claire Cooper) & Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon). (Channel 5)

The Cast

Claire Cooper as Mary Hardacre, matriarch
Liam McMahon as Sam Hardacre, patriarch
Julie Graham as Ma, Mary’s mother
Adam Little as Joe Hardacre, the eldest son
Shannon Lavelle as Liza Hardacre, the daughter
Zak Ford-Williams as Harry Hardacre, the youngest son
Taheen Modak as Callum Saunders
Holly Sturton as Adella Fitzherbert
Cathy Belton as Emma Fitzherbert
Owen Roe as George Fitzherbert
Sarah Agha as Betsy Temple
Siobhán O’Kelly as Lena Temple
Ingrid Craigie as Mrs Dryden
Mark Doherty as Beesley, the butler
Ella Maria Carmen as Maggie, the housemaid
Connor Byrne as Victor Ward
Conor Deane as Fred
Paul Ward as Albie
Paula Wolfenden as Mrs Henderson, the cook
David Pearse as Mr Shaw, boss of the docks
Michele Moran as Lady Beaumont
David O’Reilly as Little Pete
Jack Weise as Jack, Joe’s friend
Rosaleen Linehan as The Duchess
Chris McHallem as Doctor Mason:
Sarah Madigan as Mrs Greene, the dressmaker
Graeme Coughlan as Mr Harker, the fish auctioneer
Andrew Bradley as Mr Gibbons, the landlord
Eddie Capli as Big Jonesy
Stuart Wolfenden as Chinny the Butcher
Ben Carolan as Paddy Wilson
Nick Dunning as Hugil
Denis Grindel as Lord Hugo Bathurst
David McSavage as Master Knaggs
Molly McCann as Nellie
Alan Devally as the Fitzherbert Butler
Sean Duggan as Mr Elliott, the Vicar

Mary Hardacre (Claire Cooper), Lena Temple (Siobhán O’Kelly), Betsy Temple (Sarah Agha). (Channel 5)

Where Was The Hardacres Filmed?

The Hardacres was filmed in Dublin and Wicklow in Ireland, despite being set in Yorkshire. Why? ‘Back in the 1800s, Dublin was the second biggest city in the Empire. It was London and then Dublin. So we do still have a lot of Georgian infrastructure and Victorian infrastructure, and we have a lot of furniture still,’ set designer Derek Wallace shared. ‘The buyers were tasked with finding as much as they possibly could here in Ireland because of the logistics for Brexit. And in fairness to them, they came up trumps. Almost 90 percent we sourced here in Ireland.’

It’s a welcome filming location for the series lead, Northern Irish actor Sam McMahon. ‘I think that the themes are universal so for it to be filmed in Ireland and not Yorkshire doesn’t really matter,’ he said on filming. ‘Basically, at that time in the 1890s, everybody had the same struggles going on everywhere.’