This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
Julie Graham’s breakthrough role was in Sally Wainwright’s At Home with the Braithwaites in 2000. Since then, she’s brought her grit, wit and humanity to, among others, Benidorm, Shetland and This City is Ours. Claire Cooper made her name as Jacqui McQueen in Hollyoaks and went to on play Anne Boleyn in Lucy Worsley’s Six Wives and starred in Kay Mellor’s In the Club. Now they’re back as mother and daughter, Ma and Mary, in series two of the rags-to-riches period drama The Hardacres…
Ma and Mary’s relationship is tricky, tempestuous and tender. How does it develop in the new series?
Julie Mother and daughter relationships are complicated. I never believe mother-daughter relationships where they’re all nice with each other and supportive. It’s just b***ocks. So I love the tensions between Ma and Mary.
Claire This time around, we’re more agreeable but we haven’t lost that bite. We’re still spicy with each other.
Julie Whenever we can, we find little moments where we can really get on each other’s nerves. Similarly, when we find the emotion of it as well, it’s really special. Claire and I are friends but I do feel like I’m her mother sometimes.
What’s your relationship like with your own mother?
Julie Mine’s dead, so it’s great now.
Claire My mum’s awesome.
Does your on-screen chemistry come naturally or is it something you can manufacture?
Claire There needs to be a genuine spark. Julie gives me that freedom, an environment where I can take big risks. Ultimately, a friendship blossoms because you’re being so authentic with each other.
Julie If you’ve got to play something that’s a little bit spicy and a little bit antagonistic, as Ma and Mary often are, it does help if you adore somebody. The more you like them, the easier it is.
The Hardacres doesn’t romanticise the class system or fetishise poshness. Is it the anti-Downton Abbey?
Julie The fact that it was created by working-class writers [Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan] makes it unusual because writers like that are rare.
Tell us where you’re from and how you got into acting…
Claire I’m from a West Yorkshire working-class family and, apart from loving theatre, didn’t have an obvious “in” into the industry. Drama school was costly but luckily I got a scholarship for Guildford School of Acting. However, when I left it was just about banging on doors. I got an agent then eventually got into TV but it wasn’t easy. Sometimes I feel as if I’m still banging on doors.
Julie My mum [actress Betty Webster] was from a working-class background. She was a single parent living in a two-bedroom flat in a Glasgow tenement, and I was raised by my granny and my aunties – strong, matriarchal women. I had an easier crossover into acting because my mum had done it, and that opened doors for me. But I had a chip on my shoulder worrying I only got this particular job because my mum knew the director.
Any diversions along the way?
Julie Starting out, I was told to get rid of my accent and only do auditions in a neutral English or RP [received pronunciation] accent. At the time, that was common advice to Scottish and working-class actors but that felt wrong, like I wasn’t being myself. So I ignored it – and I don’t think my accent has held me back.
How has the industry changed over the course of your career?
Julie When I think about stuff that we had to put up with – how unsafe sets were for women, the huge power imbalance between men and women on a film or sometimes in the theatre… it was palpable. Now, there’s so many more guardrails around that kind of behaviour. I’m so protective of younger actors, but often I don’t need to be, because they’ve got it sorted out.
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Outside of the soaps, why do you think older women’s stories have been neglected by TV drama?
Claire It just doesn’t make sense to me because those women are the very demographic that they’re selling to, so why not feature them and their stories?
Julie If the gatekeepers are older, straight, white men, and we are not attractive to them, then they’re probably not interested in our stories. But you’ve got people like Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman using their power to tell new, different stories. That has trickled over here to a certain extent. I for one will not accept a part for a token older woman. It just doesn’t interest me.
Claire I love being on a female-led set. On the first series of The Hardacres, the director, writers and producers were all women, and obviously there was us, and that’s a great working environment. It’s still rare though.
Is that key to The Hardacres’s appeal?
Julie Yes, obviously it’s the women at the heart of it all.
Claire The stories aren’t violent or sexualised so it’s a show you can watch as a family – and we do. Unlike the shows that my husband is in [Emmett J Scanlan, Mobland], which we can’t. And with what’s going on in the world, we need the escapism that the likes of The Hardacres provides.
Are you driven more by curiosity or ambition?
Julie People assume that every actor or director wants to be successful and famous, but actually, that’s not really what the job’s about. For me, it’s about discovery. Every job you do, you learn something, whether it be from the story you’re telling, the people you work with, or the experiences that you have.
Claire Curiosity, definitely, but with a sprinkling of ambition.
The Hardacres season 2 begins on Thursday 14 May at 9pm on 5.
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