After walking onto the set of new TV period drama The Hardacres, took a moment to soak up the vibes. The Scottish actress, star of Benidorm, Shetland and The Bletchley Circle, has worked on a lot of sets in her 40-year screen career, and knows how often they can be, as she would put it, “male, pale and stale”. Not the Hardacres, though.
“There’s a female producer, female director, and all the writers are women,” says Julie, speaking from her front room in Brighton. “That’s different, and that means there’s a different feel to the production. “There are well-rounded female characters but also well-rounded male characters existing alongside them too.
That was important to me, to see that. There’s a different energy to the set. This is a huge generalisation but it seems more egalitarian.
Sometimes when women are in charge, I think voices are more likely to be heard. “That’s not always the case, I’ve worked with some women who are hugely problematic but in general when I’ve worked on sets which are female-led or have a big, strong female presence more voices are listened to and, you know, sh** gets done.” The Hardacres There aren’t many more strong female voices than Julie’s character in The Hardacres.
Adapted from the novels by CL Skelton, the crowd-pleasing series follows a working-class Victorian family from Yorkshire, who escape their lives scraping a living on the grimy docks, to one of luxury on a sprawling country estate. While Mary and Sa.
