Channel 5’s new period drama The Hardacres is laughable
If you instructed an AI to create a story about rising from poverty to wealth, with the style of Peaky Blinders but funded by a bank, you'd end up with Channel 5's dull period drama The Hardacres. This series, based on a book by CL Skelton and produced by the same team as All Creatures Great and Small, tells the tale of a Yorkshire family transitioning from hard work to a lavish lifestyle, resembling a commercial for smart investing with Halifax.
When we were first introduced to the Hardacre family in the opening episode, the women were happily cleaning fish while the men were bustling about, moving heavy items on the dock. Despite the harshness of their lives, everyone seemed cheerful, exchanging jokes as they toiled away. That was until the family head, Sam (played by Liam McMahon), heroically stepped in to save a fellow worker from a tumbling crate, which resulted in an injury to his hand and left him unable to work.
The situation took a turn for the worse when Sam's wife, Mary (played by Claire Cooper, recognized for her role as Jacqui McQueen in Hollyoaks), went to see his boss to request an advance on his salary. However, she was met with an inappropriate demand for sexual favors instead. After turning him down, she lost her job, and with rent payments looming, the family had to come up with a quick solution. Fortunately, in the universe of The Hardacres, all it took to thrive was good intentions and hard work. It’s quite a surprising and uplifting approach to capitalism.
After a few rough beginnings—when the family was rejected by a large home where they intended to have their daughter Liza work as a maid, and Mary’s venture of selling fried herring thrived until she and her son Harry were attacked and robbed of their profits—they soon found themselves in a much better situation.
Following in the footsteps of Mary's herring stall, the Hardacre family enjoyed another triumph. When troublemakers showed up, it was simply Ma Hardacre (Julie Graham) threatening to inform their fathers that made them quickly back off: “I know your dad [...] I can only imagine what he’d think about you running around stealing from women and young boys?” At that moment, I couldn't help but spit out my tea in shock.
In real life, living with financial uncertainty means having to make tough choices to stay afloat. However, the Hardacres always appeared unfazed by the threat of financial ruin. They bravely confronted heavy machinery, embarrassed influential figures, and stood up to armed criminals. Not only were these actions incredibly risky, but they also somehow ended up yielding positive results.
Equally tiresome was the banking plot. In a long, drawn-out scene, the newly minted Mary and Sam meet with a friendly banker who talks on and on about managing their money earned from herring—suggesting ideas like “have you thought about expansion and investment?” This was not only dull but also confusing. I half-expected the banker to turn out to be a fraud, a long-lost relative, or someone else who would justify their lengthy conversation, but whether that’s the case is still uncertain.
Instead, when the mine that the couple had invested in discovered gold, the Hardacres also hit the jackpot. As the episode came to an end, we witnessed them arriving at their new grand home—the very one that had turned Liza away for the maid's job, which is quite the turnaround. “You can call me ma’am,” Mary said triumphantly to the furious housekeeper. Well, you can call me frustrated.
At its core, The Hardacres revolves around class, a topic that always intrigues in the UK and offers plenty of material for captivating stories. Sadly, this opportunity was wasted. Instead of exploring how wealth shapes identity or examining the gap between people's desires and their resources, The Hardacres opted for a condescending fairy tale. It had as little depth as the confusing building society advertisements awkwardly inserted into the first episode. Though The Hardacres had the potential for great storytelling, it ultimately fell flat in terms of entertainment value.
"The Hardacres" is back next Monday at 9 PM on Channel 5.
