The Hardacres is adapted from the novel series by CL Skelton and will be comprised of six episodes. It will follow the Hardacre family as they establish themselves as herring merchants on the fishing docks to owning their own shop and then making some serious money. The Radio Times adds: "But soon, with their newfound riches, they're catapulted into a high society that they have no experience of.
"From not knowing exactly what to do with their days, getting used to the fashions and hair of the time and having to schmooze the snobby locals, The Hardacres certainly looks like it's full of lots of drama." Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan wrote the series, and they spoke to the Radio Times about changes made to the books. McLaughlan said: "Our version is definitely inspired by the book as opposed to an adaptation, because one of the initial things that we changed immediately is that the book is very focused around Sam.
"And what we saw immediately is that we wanted to do a family ensemble show, so immediately you need to move it out and away from Sam. We wanted to make Sam and Mary a team. And we wanted to write about a successful marriage, because again, that’s not something that you see on TV very often, a couple working together.
"And then from that, it very naturally expanded out. There are two brothers, but they are very young in the books, so we needed to age them up a bit. We also needed to bring in more feminine energy, so that’s where the idea for [new characters] Ma.