‘All Creatures’ team’s new 1890s drama ‘The Hardacres’ reveals cast

Channel 5‘s latest Yorkshire-based series The Hardacres has started filming!

From the makers of All Creatures Great and Small, the upcoming period drama is based on CL Skelton’s best-selling The Hardacre Saga novels.

The Hardacres is described as “a sweeping rags to riches story that follows the lives, loves and fortunes of the working class Hardacre family as they move from a grimy fish dock to a vast country estate in 1890’s Yorkshire.”

Production on six 60-minute episodes is now underway on location in Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland.

First announced this summer, The Hardacres has been created by writers Loren McLaughlan (Call the Midwife) and Amy Roberts (Doc Martin, Cold Feet).

We’re told that the “bold, gutsy ensemble family drama” will be “full of heart,” with its story exploring “an ordinary family in an extraordinary position” as they discover if money really can buy true happiness.

Leading the cast are Claire Cooper (The Continental) and Liam McMahon (Hunger, The Secret) as loving married couple Mary and Sam Hardacre.

The pair will find themselves landing on hard times after an accident at work on the docks leaves them unemployed and broke.

Scottish actress Julie Graham – who you’ll recognise from her roles in Benidorm, Shetland, and The Bletchley Circle – will play Mary’s wily mother, Ma.

Playing Mary and Sam’s three kids are Adam Little (Ackley Bridge) as Joe, newcomer Shannon Lavelle as Liza, and Zak Ford-Williams (Better) as Harry.

The six-part series will follow the family as they embark on a business venture to free them from their humble existence on the North Yorkshire Coast and catapult them into high society!

Other cast members will include Holly Sturton (The School for Good and Evil) as Adella, Cathy Belton (Miss Scarlet & The Duke) as Emma, and Owen Roe (Vikings) as George, playing the Hardacres’ new neighbours, the posh Fitzherbert family.

There are roles too for Ingrid Craigie (Blood) as housekeeper Mrs Dryden, Siobhan O’Kelly (The Tourist) as Lena, and Taheen Modak (The Bay) as Saunders.

“We’re incredibly excited to have found a cast that embodies and enhances the spirit, humour and humanity that leaps off the page in both the original novels and the brilliant scripts…” commented executive producer David Stern.

“Audiences will undoubtedly fall in love with our fantastic group of actors, made up of both seasoned talent and exciting new faces, as they bring this spirited and sweeping rags to riches saga to life on screen,” he added.

The Hardacres will premiere in the UK in 2024 on Channel 5.

We’re not yet sure who’ll be showing it in the US, but we expect the series will end up on PBS Masterpiece.

Meanwhile, All Creatures Great and Small fans are still nervously waiting to hear if there’ll be a fifth season!

Hopefully we’ll find out next month once Season 4 begins airing in the US.

CL Skelton’s The Hardacre Saga books are available on Amazon.