From the makers of All Creatures Great and Small, this is when new Yorkshire drama The Hardacres will air as Channel 5 releases first-look trailer

The first episode airs at 9pm on Monday, October 7. It sees the Hardacre family working at the docks until an accident leaves them unemployed. They are on the brink of the poorhouse when a radical business idea reaps rewards and soon they are rich beyond their wildest dreams. Catapulted into the rarefied world of the upper classes, they are faced with snobbery, misunderstanding – and existential crises galore.

The Hardacre books were written by Clement Lister (CL) Skelton. Born in Northumberland in 1919, he was a contemporary of James Herriot (Alf Wight was born in 1916 in Sunderland), and was a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain. He returned to acting, in London and in Scarborough. He wrote the two Hardacre novels in the late 1970s but died in 1979.

Although The Hardacres is set in Yorkshire (Grimsby, Whitby and Bridlington are mentioned in the opening of the first Hardacre novel), the series was actually filmed on location in Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland.

The Hardacres stars Claire Cooper (The Continental, The Peripheral) and Liam McMahon (Hunger, The Secret, Warrior Nun) as hard-working parents Mary and Sam Hardacre. Julie Graham (Time, Beniform, Ridley, Shetland), is Mary’s wily mother, Ma, and their three teenage children, Joe, Liza, and Harry, are played by Adam Little (Ackley Bridge, Coronation Street), newcomer Shannon Lavelle, and Zak Ford-Williams (Better, Bridgerton).

Also starring are Holly Sturton (The School for Good and Evil) as Adella, Cathy Belton (The Catch, Philomena) as Emma, and Owen Roe (Michael Collins, Vikings) as George, making up the well-to-do new neighbours the Fitzherbert family.

Ingrid Craigie (Blood, Blackshore, You Are Not My Mother) is housekeeper Mrs Dryden, with Siobhan O’Kelly (The Tourist S2) as Lena, Sarah Agha as Betsy and Taheen Modak (The Bay) as Saunders.

The first Hardacre novel has been a number one bestseller in the Amazon Family Saga Kindle charts in the UK, US and Australia. The novel has consistently ranked at the top of all Amazon Kindle titles in the UK for the past decade.

Chanel 5 has released a synopsis for the first episode: “After an unfortunate accident befalls dock worker Sam Hardacre, he and his family lose their jobs at the docks and must race to find work or else end up on the streets.

"His wife Mary, daughter Liza and mother-in-law Ma venture to the gilded halls of country estate Thornton Hall in search of work."

Producer Simon Cox said: "We fell in love with the world of The Hardacres from the first read of the scripts, and we’re delighted with the ensemble cast that Playground has assembled.”

The Hardacres series was created by lead writers Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan (The Winter King, Call the Midwife), also Executive Producers.

Playground has made the series in association with Screen Ireland, Red Berry Productions and Newgrange Pictures.

The Hardacres begins on Channel 5 on Monday, October 7, at 9pm and runs for six 60-minute episodes.