Robert Neil Hardwick (born 22 July 1948 in Teversal, Sutton-in-Ashfield, England)[1] is a British-born Finnish theatre and TV director and writer.

[4][5] In Reinikainen, the protagonist is an elderly single policeman from the countryside, who is transferred to a city, where his verbal skill, cunning and nonchalant attitude often defuses dramatic situations and saves the day.

His most artistically ambitious work is the TV series Pakanamaan kartta, dealing with total short term memory loss and ecoterrorism.

[6] Hardwick has directed several revues and humour shorts, but is at his best as a depictor of the pathetically humorous daily life of the small man.

He has repeatedly voiced his exasperation with the nanny state mentality of Finnish TV,[6] but has also said that Finland is the only country where he "is someone".