Makers of All Creatures Great and Small unveil new twists for Yorkshire saga The Hardacres series 2 as Michele Dotrice joins cast
Rags to riches Yorkshire family saga The Hardacres is set to return soon to Channel 5, and the production company behind it – which also makes All Creatures Great and Small – has announced new cast members and first-look images.
Inspired by the bestselling novels by CL Skelton, The Hardacres stars Wakefield actress Claire Cooper (The Continental, The Peripheral) and Irish actor Liam McMahon (Hunger, Warrior Nun) as Mary and Sam Hardacre, alongside Julie Graham (The City Is Ours, Time) as Ma.
Joe, Liza and Harry Hardacre are played by Adam Little (Ackley Bridge, Coronation Street), Shannon Lavelle (Riot Women) and Zak Ford‑Williams (Bridgerton, Better).
New faces joining the cast for series two include Michele Dotrice (A Very English Scandal) as Lady Imelda Hansen, the formidable mother of Lady Emma Fitzherbert.
Niall McNamee (Saipan, Bad Sisters) joins as Edward Blackwood, and Edward Mitchell (Zack Snyder’s Justice League) as Arthur Lewis.
The cast also includes Holly Sturton (Lies We Tell), Cathy Belton (Philomena) and Owen Roe (Sherlock) as Lady Adella, Lady Emma and Lord George Fitzherbert, with Ingrid Craigie (Blackshore) as Mrs Dryden, Sarah Agha as Betsy Hardacre (The Badlands), and Taheen Modak (The Bay) as Callum Saunders.
Following the success of the first series, which followed the Hardacre family as they rose from East Yorkshire dockland poverty to stately grandeur and wealth, series two finds the Hardacre family on the brink of transformation in 1895, as modernity sweeps into Hardacre Hall with electricity and shifting loyalties.
Mary and Sam embrace wealth and opportunity, but their children begin forging identities that challenge expectations.
Mary champions adult education for dock workers, while Sam expands the family business amid a looming recession, uncertain if Joe is ready to succeed him.
Determined to prove himself, Joe’s impulsive choices threaten his future. Liza is swept up by a chance encounter with a handsome stranger, while Harry’s plans to abandon school are transformed by an inspiring new tutor.
Ma forms an unexpected bond but as tensions rise, Lady Imelda Hansen arrives at Fitzherberts with a dangerous agenda, forcing the Hardacres to unite or risk losing everything.
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 in Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland.
The Hardacres is made by Playground, the award-winning production company behind hit series All Creatures Great and Small; in association with Screen Ireland and Red Berry Productions. Banijay Rights handles international sales for the series.
The series was commissioned by Deputy Chief Content Officer and Head of Scripted, Paramount UK, Sebastian Cardwell, alongside Paul Testar, Commissioning Editor, 5.
Executive Producers are Colin Callender (All Creatures Great and Small, The Undeclared War) and David Stern (Howards End, The Last Tycoon) for Playground, Lesley McKimm (The Hardacres, My Name is Emily) for Playground and Red Berry Productions, Simon Cox for Banijay Rights and Kate McColgan for Screen Ireland.