Is The Hardacres based on a true story? Historical accuracy of books explained

Set in 1890s Yorkshire, the series is set to unfold over the coming weeks, as we follow the Hardacre family as they try to grow accustomed to their new high-society living.

But is the new show based on a true story? Read on for everything you need to know about The Hardacres and its historical accuracy.

Is The Hardacres based on a true story? Historical accuracy of books explained

While The Hardacres isn't based on a true story, it is based on the best-selling series of novels, The Hardacre Family Saga Books 1 & 2, by CL Skelton.

And it was tantamount to the series that things were as historically accurate as possible, as director Rachel Carey explains.

She said: "I wanted the series to resonate with the present while honouring the past. It was a mantra for us. I didn't want to play fast and loose with historical accuracy.

"Instead, I focused on showing people the historical details they might not have seen before, in a truthful and cinematic way. It’s a rags-to-riches drama, and it’s something that dealt with the working classes, which we don't tend to see as much in period dramas.

"I aimed for a cinematic realism that captured the warmth, entertainment, and energy of our characters."

Speaking about the biggest challenge they faced while filming, Carey said: "Locations were the biggest challenge. Finding period-accurate places to shoot in was difficult.

"When you shoot anything period, everywhere you point the camera has a problem, a smoke alarm or wiring. Exterior locations? Forget about it! It’s so hard to find something you can shoot in freely. It required clever design and blocking to make it work."

To ensure historical accuracy of the docks, set designer Derek Wallace said: "Again, back to research and books and museums. I would talk to anyone about the boats and docks. It's just getting all those little layers that you build up, even if they're in the background and how they worked.

"We learned all about the fish gutting tables, the kind of knives they used, what they wore. A lot of the workers wore flour sacks round their hands. As it was primarily women working gutting the fish, their hands were covered in cuts and the sacks worked to protect them."

He added: "There was a lot of discussions backwards and forwards with maritime museums, and various people in the north of England about how they would have looked and how we could recreate them."

The series also outlines the experiences of disabled people during the era - something that is often forgotten about in period dramas - and speaking about why it is "so important", series star Zak Ford-Williams said: "I've got cerebral palsy, and as a person, and as an actor, I was very keen to not play a condition I don't have.

"At the same time, I'm a massive history nerd, so I wanted to be playing having cerebral palsy, or as it was known then, 'Little’s Disease', as how it would have presented itself at the time."

He continued: "I always go back a little anecdote I had with an old tutor of mine. When I was in drama school, we did a lot of period dance. Drama school is full of these young, beautiful people who are very physically fit and active, and me going up there and dancing as someone who's disabled, you know, I've never felt that comfortable.

"I felt like I couldn’t do it, and I talked to my tutor and she said that disability was far more common in those days, and to ignore other period dramas where all of these perfect people do it, because that's informed our cultural view on this.

"People will have been disabled. It would have been so common - war injuries, poor health care, starvation.

"People will have just been wonky. People would do these dances and move however they could, and people would just make their own adjustments, particularly among the working classes."

Ford-Williams went on: "Among the upper classes, it's much more of a thing, which is very interesting for Harry transitioning between those two classes. It is very accurate to say there would have been a lot more disabled people then than we have now. And now it's one fifth of the population.

"We don't often see it in period dramas, the numbers are completely off in terms of historical accuracy, but [it] gives our view a completely different vibe.

"So, I find it very important because when we show people period dramas, whether you like it or not, it kind of becomes how we perceive that time period.

"It’s not a malicious thing, but when you don't put disabled people in period dramas, in an era where there were lots of disabled people, people then start thinking there were no disabled people at this time.

"I think it's important to make sure we don't accidentally rewrite history and erase people by making everyone pretty and clean. I think it's really important to give people a proper look into what these periods were like for all sorts of people."

The Hardacres premieres tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.

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