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“We’re The Hardacres, love, son, and we haven’t had any dinner!” is what I was expecting Mary Hardacre (Claire Cooper) to say, as she set out her declaration at the end of this opening episode…
Channel 5’s new serial drama shows it’s reet good to be set in t’Yorkshire, where dinner is bread & a bowl of slop in front of an open fire, and… nah, I can’t keep that up.
It’s 1991 and Britpop is just four years away, but… oh, hang on, it’s 1891 and the music of the time is a little different.
So is life for the family, the women of the clan are looking to bag a worthy man, while making a living by gutting the herring which has just been fished out of the sea.
Health and safety hasn’t yet been invented, with a dodgy crane causing an injury for Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon – Joan), and thanks to the unwanted advances of foreman Mr. Shaw (David Pearse – The Banshees of Inisherin), the forthright Mary sets him straight and heads off, with everyone else in the family contributing to ‘Jerry Maguire’ and heading off in solidarity.
Thankfully, their next job is much less smelly, as we recreate Upstairs Downstairs, with the family’s females aiming to work for a posh family. But for now, selling fried herring seems to go down a storm, so if you ever find yourselve travelling back in time to the 1890s, you know which game to be in.
Overall, The Hardacres isn’t my sort of bag as something to watch on a regular basis, but as it comes from the creators of the recent All Creatures Great And Small remake – which is currently in its 5th series – this has a target audience who’ll lap it up.
And if they run for several series and reach the end of the century, they might meet up with Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2, and have a crossover! I’ll check back in for that 😉
And there were a few tweets, made during the programme, which made me laugh, and all of which are spoiler-free:
I remember the last time we had Hardacres on TV #brass #thehardacres pic.twitter.com/DlJxqy23y3
— Martin Gray (@MartGray) October 7, 2024
#thehardacres Awfully stagey and the old man’s hand that’s was never going to get better looks like it got better in no time😂
— bigun (@bigun1414) October 7, 2024
This is exactly like one of those interminable Catherine Cookson dramas from the 1980s! #thehardacres
— mrs banana (@madamelebun) October 7, 2024
Seems unlikely. I know that if they had people speaking exactly as they did at the time it would sound a bit stilted, but using what seems like very modern phrases does shatter the period atmosphere #TheHardacres
— Brian Holding 🇳🇵🇺🇦 (@BuggySwires) October 7, 2024
The Hardacres continues next Monday on Channel 5 at 9pm, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date November 18th.
Check out the trailer below:
Series Directors: Rachel Carey, Kieron J Walsh
Producer: Alex Jones
Writers: Liz Lake, Loren Mclaughlan, Emma Reeves, Amy Roberts
Cast:
Mary Hardacre: Claire Cooper
Sam Hardacre: Liam McMahon
Ma: Julie Graham
Maggie: Ella Maria Carmen
Fred Holdsworth: Conor Deane
Jack: Jack Weise
Joe Hardacre: Adam Little
Liza Hardacre: Shannon Lavelle
Harry Hardacre: Zak Ford-Williams
Fitzherbert Butler: Alan Devally
Lockwood: Gary Murray
Nellie: Molly McCann
Mr. Shaw: David Pearse
Emma Fitzherbert: Cathy Belton
Saunders: Taheen Modak
Adella Fitzherbert: Holly Sturton
George Fitzherbert: Owen Roe
Lena: Siobhán O’Kelly
Mrs. Dryden: Ingrid Craigie
Beesley: Mark Doherty
Betsy: Sarah Agha
Lady Beaumont: Michele Moran
Dr. Mason: Chris McHallem
Mrs. Henderson: Paula Wolfenden
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.