CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR CHANNEL 5’S RAGS TO RICHES DRAMA ‘THE HARDACRES’

Casting has been announced for The Hardacres, a major new 6 x 60’ period drama for Channel 5 from Playground, the award-winning production company behind the internationally acclaimed hit series All Creatures Great and Small. Currently filming on location in Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland, the new series is based on CL Skelton’s best-selling series of novels ‘The Hardacre Saga’.  The novels are the number 1 bestseller in the Amazon Family Saga Kindle charts in the UK, US and Australia and Top 15 Bestseller across all Amazon Kindle titles in the US and UK. Global partners Banijay Rights will handle international distribution for the series. 

The Hardacres is 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. 

A bold, gutsy ensemble family drama full of heart, The Hardacres places an ordinary family in an extraordinary position and explores the age-old question – can money ever buy true happiness?

The Hardacre family consists of Claire Cooper (The Continental, The Peripheral) and Liam McMahon (Hunger, The Secret, Warrior Nun) as loving married couple Mary and Sam Hardacre, who land on hard times following an accident at work on the docks, which leaves them unemployed and broke. Alongside, Julie Graham (Time, Ridley, Penance), starring as Mary’s wily mother, Ma, and their three kids, Joe, Liza, and Harry, played by Adam Little (Ackley Bridge, Coronation Street), newcomer Shannon Lavelle and Zak Ford-Williams (Better), the family band together to think fast with a business venture that will free them from their humble existence on the North Yorkshire Coast and catapult them into high society. 

Also joining the series are Holly Sturton (The School for Good and Evil) as Adella, Cathy Belton (Miss Scarlet & The Duke,The Catch, Philomena) as Emma and Owen Roe (Michael Collins, Vikings, Penny Dreadful) as George, making up the well to do Fitzherbert Family and new neighbours of The Hardacres. Ingrid Craigie (Blood, Blackshore, You Are Not My Mother) is housekeeper Mrs Dryden, with Siobhan O’Kelly (The Tourist S2) as Lena, Sarah Agha (Homeland) as Betsy and Taheen Modak (The Bay) as Saunders,

The Hardacres has been created for television by Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan (The Winter King, Call the Midwife) who will serve as Lead Writers and Executive Producers. They are joined by Emma Reeves (The Worst Witch) who will write episode 3, and Liz Lake (Waterloo Road) who will write episode 4. Rachel Carey (Deadly Cuts) is Lead Director of Episodes 1-3. And Kieron J Walsh will direct Episodes 4-6. The series is produced by Playground (All Creatures Great and Small, Wolf Hall, Howards End, The Undeclared War) in association with Screen Ireland, Red Berry Productions and Newgrange Pictures. 

The series, commissioned by Deputy Chief Content Officer, Paramount UK, Sebastian Cardwell, alongside Paul Testar, Commissioning Editor, Drama, Channel 5 and Paramount+, will be produced by Alex Jones (Witness Number 3, Penance) and co-produced by Jackie Larkin (Strike, Mrs Wilson); Executive Producers are Sir Colin Callender CBE (All Creatures Great and Small, The Undeclared War) and David Stern (Howards End, The Last Tycoon) for Playground, Lesley McKimm (My Name is Emily, Sunlight) for Red Berry Productions, Cathy Payne and Simon Cox for Banijay Rights and Andrew Byrne for Screen Ireland.  

The Hardacres is planned for transmission in 2024. 

David Stern, Executive Producer and Joint Managing Director of Playground says: “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 by Amy, Loren, Liz and Emma. 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.”   

Simon Cox, Executive Producer and EVP Content & Acquisitions, Banijay Rights, says: “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. We’re in no doubt international audiences will enjoy embarking on the journey with this talented family of actors.” 

  For more information please contact: 

Lisa Vanoli lisavanolipublicity@gmail.com  

Hannah Allan hannah.allan@paramount.com

NOTES TO EDITORS   

About Channel 5  

Channel 5 is a public service broadcaster and the UK’s third largest commercial TV station. Launched in March 1997, Channel 5 has been part of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) since its acquisition in September 2014.   

Channel 5 and its digital brands – 5STAR, 5USA, 5SELECT, 5ACTION and the on-demand service My5 – offer a diverse range of issue-led documentaries & popular factual celebrating the British countryside and drawing talent to the channel, accessible history, premium drama and critically-acclaimed children’s, news and current affairs programming. Through its agenda-driving commissions, Channel 5 leads on societal issues from inequality to homelessness and mental health, aiming to tell the story of modern Britain by reflecting the lives of people across the nation.   

In 2018, Channel 5 won its first BAFTA for Cruising with Jane McDonald. The following year, Raped: My Story won best Single Documentary at RTS. In 2020, it won crowned Channel of the Year at the Broadcast Awards and by the RTS. In addition that year, it secured its first ever Grierson award win in the ‘Best Single Documentary – Domestic’ category with Suicidal: In Our Own Words. In 2021, it won best factual entertainment at the Broadcast Awards for Springtime on the Farm. It also won best drama at Voice of the Listener & Viewer for All Creatures Great and Small the same year.  

About Paramount Global   

Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA, PARAA) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic studios, networks and streaming services, its portfolio of consumer brands includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Simon & Schuster, among others. The company delivers the largest share of the U.S. television audience and boasts one of the industry’s most important and extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, Paramount Global provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution and advertising solutions.  

About Playground   

Playground is a New York and London-based television, film and theatre production company founded in 2012 by award-winning producer Colin Callender. Playground has produced over 100 hours of primetime television drama garnering 16 Emmy nominations, 26 BAFTA nominations, and 12 Golden Globe nominations, including winning a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries. 

Recent productions include Wolf Hall, the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Peabody Award winning miniseries starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy for the BBC and Masterpiece on PBS, The Dresser, the RTS winning television adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s acclaimed play starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Starz, The White Princess, a limited series for Starz drawn from the bestselling book by Philippa Gregory, Howards End, Academy Award-winner Kenneth Lonergan’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s classic novel starring Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Tracey Ullman directed by Hettie Macdonald for the BBC and Starz, Little Women, adapted by Heidi Thomas and starring Emily Watson, Michael Gambon and Angela Lansbury for the BBC and Masterpiece on PBS, King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Amazon, Chimerica, adapted by Lucy Kirkwood from her Olivier Award-winning play and starring Alessandro Nivola, Cherry Jones and Sophie Okonedo for Channel 4, The Spanish Princess, a continuation of The White Princess and The White Queen starring Charlotte Hope, Laura Carmichael and Harriet Walter for Starz, All Creatures Great and Small based on the iconic bestselling novels by James Herriot for Channel 5 and Masterpiece on PBS starring Samuel West, Anna Madeley, Nicholas Ralph, Callum Woodhouse and Rachel Shenton, Dangerous Liaisons based on the iconic novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for Starz, and Peter Kosminsky’s The Undeclared War starring Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Adrian Lester and Hannah Khalique-Brown for Channel 4 and Peacock.  

Playground’s theatre productions on Broadway include: Nora Ephron’s Tony-nominated Lucky Guy directed by George C. Wolfe starring Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut, Harvey Fierstein’s Tony-nominated Casa Valentina directed by Joe Mantello, the Tony Award-winning revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Jez Butterworth’s The River directed by Ian Rickson and starring Hugh Jackman, and Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford’s critically acclaimed groundbreaking production of Macbeth at The Park Avenue Armory in New York, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Dear Evan Hansen, and current smash hit musical New York New York. Recent theatre productions in the West End include: John Tiffany's The Glass Menagerie, Casey Nicholaw’s Dreamgirls, and Ian Rickson’s Rosmersholm.  

Playground, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, is currently producing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the West End where it won a record-breaking 9 Olivier Awards, on Broadway where it won 6 Tony Awards including Best Play, and in Melbourne, San Francisco, Toronto, Tokyo and Hamburg where it has opened to further critical acclaim.   

About Banijay Rights    

Leading global distributor, Banijay Rights, represents a world-class, multi-genre portfolio of 180,000 hours of standout programming. Handling the distribution for media and entertainment powerhouse, Banijay, the division specialises in the exploitation of premium scripted and non-scripted brands to broadcasters worldwide.   

Representing quality, excellence and experience in the business of linear and non-linear television and ancillary activity across all platforms, Banijay Rights’ catalogue encompasses a host of top titles from Banijay’s 130+ in-house labels, and a number of third-party producers, spanning drama, comedy, entertainment, factual, reality, family, formats and theatrical.   

Delivering high-quality IP, which was born locally and travels globally, the distributor offers the best stories told the best way. Its landmark brands include Survivor, Big Brother, MasterChef, Peaky Blinders, Rogue Heroes, Marie Antoinette, Temptation Island, Grantchester, Deal or No Deal, Biggest Loser, Home and Away, Love Triangle, Mr Bean and Black Mirror.  

Built on independence, creative freedom, entrepreneurialism and commercial acumen, Banijay Rights operates under the direction of Chief Executive Officer, Cathy Payne.