We’re all familiar with the (patronising, problematic) narrative of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps – but Channel 5’s rags-to-riches historical drama The Hardacres stretches that to the nth degree. With its titular family yanking themselves through the ceiling, nay the ozone layer, nay the stratosphere, encountering no discernible friction along the way, the show seems to ask viewers who’ve endured any kind of hardship: what’s your excuse?
In series one, the tedious Yorkshire clan went from Humble Fish Gutters to Minted Millionaires practically overnight, after a workplace injury put their patriarch, Sam (Liam McMahon), out of action, and they pluckily started a herring stall. Now ensconced in luxurious Hardacre Hall, the second series began on tenterhooks, with the mansion’s electricity due to be turned on for the first time. As everyone assembled in the dining room, I braced for some kind of comical mishap or difficulty – silly me! This is The Hardacres; the switch was flipped, and everything worked seamlessly and immediately. Yay…
Electricity sorted, the next promising plot point came with mum Mary Hardacre (Claire Cooper) eyeing up a bicycle, only to be warned that the shape of its seat posed “health implications” for women riders. Gosh, how would she tackle the obstacles – physical, structural and social – between her and her objective? Suddenly, there weren’t any: within minutes, Mary was not just riding herself but presenting her bloomer-clad Ma and daughter Liza with their own bikes, the trio of novices somehow pedalling confidently before you could say “class mobility”.
Nice for them, I guess – but for viewers hankering after some narrative heft, it was a disaster.
Shannon Lavelle as Liza Hardacre and Sarah Agha as Betsy Temple Hardacre (Photo: Channel 5)On its most basic level, storytelling works by presenting protagonists with an obstacle; their evolution (or dissolution) in trying to overcome it is what fleshes out a narrative. The writers of The Hardacres seem to have gotten only half that memo: again and again, a likely looking problem was thrown into the mix, only to be resolved before characters could get so much as a nibble, let alone sink their teeth in. Rather than the foundations of a good story, we were treated to a list of events – almost impossible to invest in emotionally.
Liza couldn’t find a suitor she liked – oh wait, that handsome soldier at the pub looks like a good bet. The maid mucked up the kitchen orders because she can’t read – don’t worry, Mary’s already got her a tutor. And when a recession threatened the Hardacres’ empire, Sam decided the family should pivot from herring shops to general stores, and that was that: as Mary said, “We took a chance before and it paid off, we can do it again.” Sure – but if “taking a chance” really is all it takes to succeed in this weird parallel universe, better not let your struggling workers hear you, otherwise Victorian Yorkshire will be awash with dockers-turned-herring-magnates in five seconds flat.
The only redeeming feature of The Hardacres (or at least, the one plot point permitted to stretch beyond its opening episode) came in the form of Lady Imelda Hansen (Michele Dotrice) – the visiting mother of the Hardacres’ frosty neighbour Emma (Cathy Belton). Having played the kindly old lady all episode, her mask-drop at the end was delicious: “I want to make an example of them – a warning to anybody who thinks that they can buy class,” she said of the Hardacres. “They’ll be back down those docks before they know what’s happened.”
Michele Dotrice as Imelda Hansen (Photo: Channel 5)At last, some narrative impetus! I relished Lady Imelda’s dastardly reveal – not just because something was finally happening, but because I wholeheartedly shared her desire to take the Hardacres down a peg or two. Of course, my impulse doesn’t come from faith in some pre-ordained class system – just, how dull a story it makes for anyone to prevail ad infinitum, particularly when victory is so easily won, as though all that separates struggling people from success is the merest inkling of effort.
Hell, if that were true, the feat of sitting through the episode’s neo-liberal fantasy should have netted me a herring empire – or at least a rollmop or two.
‘The Hardacres’ continues next Thursday at 9pm on Channel 5
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