The creators of a new “working-class Downton Abbey” drama say the lack of such programming is being compounded by the decline of soaps and “posh older guys” who have had the monopoly on storytelling.

Made by the producers of All Creatures Great and Small, the “rags-to-riches” period drama The Hardacres is the brainchild of Call the Midwife and Our Girl writers Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlin, who said they chose to make the series because “more working-class people watch telly than any other demographic, but they don’t feel like they are represented on the screen”.

The series is written and produced by working-class women – unusual for a period drama – and McLaughlin said: “One of the most important things for us was the class angle” as it was “rare to see a working-class family at the forefront of any TV show, let alone a period drama”, particularly one with smart, witty characters. She said: “The stories that we tell about working-class people are often quite grim, quite depressing … patronising [or] caricatures.”

Billed as a cross between Poldark and Downton Abbey, The Hardacres is based on the bestselling Hardacre saga novels by CL Skelton and charts the journey of a Victorian family from gutting fish in grimy docks to amassing a huge Yorkshire country estate as they navigate the British class system.

Class is a thorny issue for television at the moment. It was debated at the Edinburgh television festival in August after the Sherwood creator James Graham said the industry should treat class like other inequalities such as race or sexuality and Carol Vorderman pointed out that working-class people were shunning TV for social media. The Line of Duty star Vicky McClure told the Labour party conference she was “finding it frustrating” getting TV to make working-class shows.

Roberts said: “We’re at a sort of crisis point. TV’s in a really tough spot with falling revenue … We have to connect to the audience and we do that by representing them and showing them something that does speak to their lives. We do that less the fewer working-class people we have telling stories.

“Eight per cent of people who work in film and television are from working-class backgrounds, which is terrible … It’s not by accident that working-class writers aren’t commissioned. Someone is making those decisions.

“Posh older guys … don’t have the monopoly on storytelling, they really don’t, and we need to open the shop.”

McLaughlin said many working-class writers were struggling to make a living. She said the golden era of working-class dramas from 20 years ago that inspired her came from “people that were coming through the soaps who built the bedrock of working-class drama, like [Clocking Off writer] Paul Abbott”. As soaps’ popularity has fallen, she added, “we don’t have the same people allowed to come through from those continuing dramas”.

The Doctor Who, Time and Payback actor Julie Graham, who plays Ma Hardacre, said the problem was exacerbated because “a whole generation of young, working-class actors …will probably be wiped out because there’s not the funding to go to drama school” that was available when she was training.

She said Judi Dench put “about 10 working-class actors through drama school every year. But she shouldn’t have to do that.”

Her words, and those of Roberts and McLaughlin, echoed those of McClure, who has been trying to get working-class dramas made through her own production company but, despite her fame, is “finding it frustrating”.

She told Labour’s party conference that more working-class people were turning to social media rather than TV and asked: “Where’s the working class The Crown? That’s what I’d love to see. Something with big production values, where the stories and characters are as big.”

The Hardacres, which is a rarity in having an all-female writing team, female producers and strong female leads across three generations, may help fill that gap. It airs on Channel 5 from 7 October.

Graham praised Channel 5 for commissioning relatable, British series, saying: “Channel 5 is trying to put on working-class stories … that people can relate to and working with actors who are from those kinds of backgrounds [and also] employing writers from those backgrounds.”

STRICTLY Come Dancing fans have been left unimpressed by what some have coined the ‘cringiest moment ever’ on the show.

It happened last night just before Tasha Ghouri and Aljaž Škorjanec took to the dance floor for their Viennese Waltz.

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Host Tess Daly was gearing up to introduce Tasha and Aljaz’s training segment, when she headed over to judge Craig Revel Horwood.

She said: “Right now on the dance floor is Tasha and Aljaz, they got off to a great start last week.

“In fact, there’s only really one way to describe our social media star isn’t there Craig?”

Craig knowingly turned to Tess and replied: “Skibidi rizz, darling. Ski-bi-di rizz!’”

Viewers at home were left baffled by the word, and Urban Dictionary reveals: “the phrase is the second-highest level of Rizz’, a Gen-Z diminutive version of the word ‘charisma’.”

Fans of the show accused Craig of trying to be “down with the kids” by using a word to appeal to younger viewers of the show.

On social media, one person wrote: “craig saying skibidi rizz on strictly is the worst thing to happen the this society.”

Another said: “That was unbelievably cringe,” and a third person added: “First we got demure, now we got skibidi rizz… What the f***is going on with strictly? This is literally them rn.”

A fourth wrote: “This is the worst thing the show has ever done. Gen Z just turned to dust.”

Someone else said: “my poor gran loves strictly but she’s sick and has enough to contend with without having to hear tess daley say skibidi rizz.”

Meanwhile, Strictly contestant Tasha had to hit back at fix claims again after breaking the show record.

The former Love Island reality star wowed the judges with her Viennese waltz on week two of the competition.

She has previously come under fire due to claims she had previous “professional training”.

But on week two, Shirley Ballas and Motsi Mabuse gave Tasha and her partner Aljaž  a standing ovation after their routine.

Three of the judges – including Craig Revel Horwood – called her routine the “dance of the night.”

Anton Du Beke was also extremely complimentary as he exclaimed: “‘Give us a chance to do something bad, I’d like to mark you down.”

Despite it being only the second week, she scored a whopping 35 points as she received nine points from Shirley, Anton and Motsi

Claudia Winkleman also revealed that it was the highest ever score of a Viennese waltz in week two in Strictly Come Dancing history.

Viewers couldn’t help but take to X – formerly known as Twitter – as they declared that she had already earned her spot in the final.

“Three 9’s in week 2???? tasha is a force to be reckoned with,” wrote one fan.

A second user posted: “Tasha’s cinched her way to the final. Like give her the 10’s right now.”

While a third commented “Does Tasha have dance experience? if not ..for week 2 …I think we maybe seeing the winner … it was like watching 2 professionals!”

However many berated the routine as they blasted her casting because of her prior professional dance training.

Another fan said: “Not sure Tasha being on this years Strictly is entirely fair on the rest of the contestants. She is far and away the best dancer, but she is of course a dancer by profession.”

Someone else raged: “Tasha ghouri is a dancer so of course she can dance! Ffs.”

As an additional user stated: “Of course Tasha is a fab dancer….wouldn’t expect anything else from someone who used to be a professional dancer. I’m interested in how those who’ve never danced, or had little dance experience, improve, so Tasha will get no votes from me.”

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