The Hardacres star Julie Graham on the period drama produced, directed and written by women

After walking onto the set of new TV period drama The Hardacres, Julie Graham 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.

© Jay Brooks

While Mary and Sam, played by Claire Cooper and Liam McMahon, are the loving couple at the centre of the drama, Julie’s character is the tough matriarch who, within moments of the series starting, is brandishing a filleting knife in the general direction of someone who has crossed the Hardacres. In short, it looks like Julie is having a lot of fun.

“It is! And it gets more and more fun as things progress in the series. This is a show with a lot of heart,” Julie says. “I am really impressed with Channel Five. They’re turning out good, watchable dramas you can sit down with a family and watch.

“I sometimes feel with Netflix and all those channels, and I’m not knocking it, but sometimes I feel like it’s kind of made by AI.

“They’ve just gone, ‘oh, the algorithm wants this, so let’s make shows about rich people living in big houses living perfect lives.’ But they’re all a bit sh**, you know?”

Julie, 59, whose first telly appearance was back in 1984 with End Of The Line (starring Gregor Fisher) has seen the way the programmes have changed in that time.

“I think in some ways we’re going backwards,” she ponders. “Every new show seems like a gameshow or reality TV or, I don’t know, a comedian travelling round Britain in a campervan. F*** off, you know?

“It’s just more of that male, pale and stale stuff. You want to go and eat in every nice pub in Britain? Great, just go and do it mate. But we don’t want to watch it.”

On the contrary, you get the feeling a reality TV show where Julie travels round Britain would be a smash hit. Get on it, Channel 5.

For now, The Hardacres sees Julie pulling on period costumes. I want to ask if it’s difficult, but male actors tend not to get questioned about what they’re wearing. “No it’s interesting because the men didn’t have to get into bloody corsets and all that nonsense, you know?

“That was what women had to wear, even the poor.

“Oddly, these clothes actually help with your performance because they give you a certain posture. The shoes have no support, they’re just leather so it feels like you’re walking on bare feet, and that makes you move in a certain way.

“It was a bit of a trial getting into a corset at 5am, when you’re freezing cold. But you would be amazed what we squirrelled under those skirts.

“Claire Cooper was brilliant, she bought these things from Amazon, these leg pieces where you could hold things. Brilliant for keeping chewing gum and your phone. There’s your headline, ‘You would be amazed what we kept up our skirts…’”

Julie was born in Irvine and grew up in Glasgow’s Maryhill. She has two daughters who are now young women and Julie posts about them with pride on her Instagram feed. Their independence is important to her, but what feels like a slide to authoritarianism – one where women have fewer rights – concerns her.

“I don’t want them growing up in a world where they don’t have autonomy over their own bodies or government interference over what they’ve decided is the best way to live their lives,” Julie says. “I think what’s going on in America right now is so scary, and it does feel like everything’s shifting here in Europe too, with the rise of the far right.

“Luckily, though, there’s more of us than there are of them.

“I was raised in a very political family and my mother told me to use my vote for other people, to use my vote to create the kind of country that will help those less fortunate than yourself.

“This Labour government has got to be better than the last lot. The alternative to that is just too depressing.”

© Ruth Crafer Photography

Public figures seem to attract bile on the internet whatever they do, but those who speak up about politics or women’s rights tend to attract the most demented comments.

“I’ll post when I feel passionately about something,” Julie adds. “I’m not afraid to stick my head above the parapet, especially with women’s rights, you know? I tend not to get much pushback, but generally I just don’t read the comments. I learned that a long time ago!

“If you don’t like what I say, just unfollow me. Why are you putting yourself through this Mr or Mrs Angry? I’ll see nice things my friends have posted but if it’s anything political then I’m just not interested.”

Julie lives in Brighton with her husband Davy, and likes the LGBT-friendly vibes of her adopted home.

Having moved south of the border decades ago, I wonder if she’ll ever come back home.

“I’ve lived in Brighton for over 20 years, and England for over 30 years. So I really do feel like it’s my home. I love Brighton,” she says.

“I’m very, very much embedded here so I’ve got no plans to move back. But Scotland will always be in my heart. I miss the people, and the sensibility of Scotland.

“Don’t get me wrong. I love Scotland, and Glasgow is my home. Whenever I go back, whenever I get a chance to film up there, I jump at the chance, because I love, love, love going home.”

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Healthy Voice to be heard

With a cast including Daniel Craig, Kelly Macdonald and David Morrissey, as well as Julie Graham, Some Voices was a movie released in 2000 which perhaps didn’t get the attention its excellent performances merited.

Craig plays Ray, a young man with schizophrenia, and the film follows the effect his release from a mental hospital has on his brother, as well as his relationship with Julie’s character Mandy.

It’s a cult movie but Julie reckons Some Voices, and its attitude to mental health, was ahead of its time. It is also one of the future-007’s finest roles.

“When they were doing a film version of it, I was very, very excited to go up for it and get the scripts,” says Julie.

“I think it’s a beautiful portrayal of mental health difficulties.

“It might not have got the attention at the time but it was really well written and brilliantly directed.

“I’m really proud of that one.”

The movie was filmed six years before Daniel Craig landed the role of James Bond, but Julie recognised the quality of his acting on set.

“For me, I think that is one of Daniel Craig’s best performances,” she adds.

“The film and his performance has been very much overlooked.

“I mean, he’s a terrific actor anyway, but he was so good in that.”

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The Hardacres begins tomorrow on Channel 5 at 9pm, and will be available on My5