Hard Sun
Genre	Drama Crime Science fiction
Created by	Neil Cross
Written by	Neil Cross
Starring	Jim Sturgess Agyness Deyn Nikki Amuka-Bird Owain Arthur Lorraine Burroughs Richard Coyle Dermot Crowley Varada Sethu Jojo Macari Adrian Rawlins Derek Riddell Ukweli Roach Varada Sethu Joplin Sibtain
Composer	Neil Davidge
Country of origin	United Kingdom United States
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Neil Cross Kate Harwood Elizabeth Kilgarriff
Producer	Hugh Warren
Running time	54–56 minutes
Production company	Euston Films
Original release
Network	BBC One (UK) Hulu (US)
Release	6 January (2018-01-06) – 10 February 2018 (2018-02-10)

Hard Sun is a pre-apocalyptic British crime drama series, created and written by Neil Cross, starring Agyness Deyn and Jim Sturgess as the principal characters, DI Elaine Renko and DCI Charlie Hicks. The series is a BBC co-production with the American streaming service Hulu.^[1][2]

The series contains six episodes. It premiered on BBC One on 6 January 2018, with all six episodes subsequently available on the same day via BBC iPlayer. The series premiered on Hulu in the United States on 7 March 2018.^[3][4] The series has also been acquired by the Seven Network in Australia,^[5] ZDF in Germany^[6] and SVT in Sweden.^[7] The first series was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 19 February 2018.^[8] The show was inspired by the David Bowie song Five Years.^[9]

Writer Neil Cross has since expressed his wish to continue the series beyond its first run, claiming he has sketched out a potential five-year story arc.^[10] It was cancelled after one season.^[11]

Premise

Hard Sun is a pre-apocalyptic crime drama set in contemporary London. The protagonists are two mismatched police officers, Charlie Hicks and Elaine Renko, who stumble upon proof that a mysterious cosmic event will destroy the earth in five years, a fact the government is trying to keep secret to avoid complete anarchy. The duo is pursued by MI5 operatives who are trying to silence them for good.^[12]

Cast and characters

• Jim Sturgess as Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Hicks
• Agyness Deyn as Detective Inspector Elaine Renko
• Nikki Amuka-Bird as Grace Morrigan
• Owain Arthur as Detective Sergeant Keith Greener
• Lorraine Burroughs as Simone Hicks
• Richard Coyle as Thom Blackwood
• Dermot Crowley as Father Dennis Chapman
• Varada Sethu as Detective Sergeant Mishal Ali
• Jojo Macari as Daniel Renko
• Adrian Rawlins as Detective Sergeant George Mooney
• Derek Riddell as Detective Chief Superintendent Roland Bell
• Ukweli Roach as Will Benedetti
• Joplin Sibtain as Detective Sergeant Herbie Sarafian
• Aisling Bea as Mari Butler

Reception

Critical reception

Reviews for the first season were mixed. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 6.46 out of 10, based on 30 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Hard Sun's heady mix of narrative and visual flourishes buckle under a surfeit of clichés that ultimately weigh it down and leave the show a muddled mess."^[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 46 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[14]

Episodes