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[Hepzibar]

Group Captain Townsend, Jenny Lee, desperately trying to get their previous characters out of my head.

Liking it so far, not a period I know much about.

I dont think they are all MP's. I think its just that the story is about MP's.

I'm really enjoying this. There's some great actors in it and I love the 60s costumes. Jessica Raine looks amazing with her big eyes and her shift dresses. I feel ignorant not knowing about this period of history. I'm sure my uncle spent some time there with the RAF but his family definitely didn't stay there. Thank god. It looks horrific. No wonder Jessica Raine needs all that gin!

I'm hooked on this too. It's so interesting and part of history that my FIL was a part of - he died before me and the ex divorced.

It's fascinating and I can't wait till next week. The acting is superb and the production values excellent. A high quality watch.

I just watched episode 2 on iPlayer. So tense I could hardly bear it. And sad! I reckon Alison is aiming to scupper the relationship between the new guy and his innocent Mrs.

I quite like it and I’m interested to see where it’s headed.

The nurses uniforms weren’t very accurate though - I’m presuming they were Army nurses?!

All that heat and sand must have been bloody awful.

Optimist1 - there would have been RMPs and they might well have had their own separate base - but they would NOT have accompanied special forces (at least not without lengthy preparation) and they would NOT have sent two landrovers of RMPs to RV with the assault group. That's a company strength infantry job.
And special forces do not do approach marches to the target in broad daylight, not even when they're running late. And nor do they walk along a mountain's ridgeline, where they are visible to everyone for miles around!
Arrrrgggghhhhhh! Bloody crap Tele!

Thanks for clarifying, Poly . I can see why you're frustrated with the inaccuracies - thankfully in my civilian ignorance I can still enjoy the drama.

thankfully in my civilian ignorance I can still enjoy the drama. wink

Hear hear optimist.

Im loving it as well and not just because I have a great interest in colonial life full stop.

Ive lived just up the road to speak from where its situated for decades and I was a military wife on 4 bases like the one in the drama. In fact as a 'years later result' of what you see starting to happen in the drama we experienced a very difficult week with the base in darkness from dusk and nightly air raid warnings. Not that the children knew. They just thought we were having more of our regular power cuts. The families were then evacuated to the capital but it was scary at the time.

We had years of fun on military beach clubs like the one on screen. In fact it was a fabulous life full stop - apart from when our neighbour was flexing it muscles.

sorry I name changed for that post.

My dad was there then. He says it's unrealistic rubbish. And my dad knows everything

If you know anything much about military dress , drill and especially hierarchy in the army back then it's enough to provoke a coronary . RMP sergeant with mohican hair cut ? No no no ..

Enjoying this so far. Can't get over Jessica raine not being a goody two shoes though.

Love the trailer for next week's episode "your wife is embarrassing herself"

I can understand everyone who is frustrated by its military inaccuracy. Even me and DH, with civilian ignorance (great phrase Optimist) can recognise where it surely cannot be right. However, as Sunday night fare we are thoroughly enjoying it, not least because it's not a period/conflict that either of us know very much about.

By the by, on a similar tack, DH, being a barristers clerk of many years standing, gets very frustrated with inaccuracies in legal/courtroom dramas. Lost count of the times I've heard "well that wouldn't happen for one thing".....

Just caught up with this today. Particularly enjoying the three wives tropes, trad supportive, alcoholic scandalous and naive new wife. Good Sunday evening dross. No knowledge of the military discrepancies but my DM wrote and complained to the BBC () about the plastic gas mask used to give Mary a GA. Apparently they didn't exist until the late 80s at the earliest. So medical inaccuracies abound too!

On the medical question, did the older doctor save Mary's life with an iodine soaked wad of bandages then? Was that actually an effective treatment for pph?

I agree it seemed optimistic to think Mary would have been sitting up chirpily so soon afterwards. Would she have needed a blood transfusion - she obviously lost a lot of blood?

I don't think Alison is trying to destroy Maria's (can't remember name, so using War and Peace name) marriage. I think she just sees a rare potential friend and that will be the inevitable consequence.

(On a political note, it is not showing much about the injustices of colonialism at the moment - or giving the rebels' side of the story, desire for independence. Perhaps that will change in future episodes.)

Exactly HowcouldIpossiblyknow. I am willing to suspend disbelief over some inaccuracies in costume for example. But anyone with basic medical knowledge or common sense knows that if you have a massive hemorrhage and lose lots of blood you would be very pale/weak and need a blood transfusion. She nearly died for god sake. No need to show her all coiffed and glowing!

Yes and I think there is an emotional effect too - I would have thought most people who'd been through that would have been in huge shock, as well as physically very weak and looking like a ghost - not just cooing away.
Maybe it was to reiterate the 'Mary is a brick' theme.

Was there any mention of Alison's pregnancy in ep 2? She obviously doesn't suffer from morning sickness at the moment - all that alcohol! I suppose they didn't have the no/low alcohol guidelines then. Is she going to tell dh it isn't is? Presumably, judging by their current relationship and the fact that she said to Mary that it wasn't his, it may not even be possible that it's dh's anyway.

I am enjoying it - I think the characters are interesting, more nuanced than sometimes. eg Jessie Buckley's dh.

And Mary's hair looking so beautiful as well as you say Delatron - had that grumpy nurse washed and blow dried it for her?!

(compare and contrast with real life post-birth hair styles)

I'm not sure if iodine soaked bandages was a common management of postpartum haemorrhage but it would work, essentially you need pressure on the inside of the womb to stop the bleeding. The modern equivalent is balloon tamponade, essentially they insert a balloon and blow it up. Does the same trick, so the old doctor knew his stuff, I was impressed with his ingenuity.

Oh and Mary would not be looking that good for many many weeks!!

thanks, that's very interesting electromag!

So we were being led to believe "fuddy duddy doctor" would kill Mary off by overruling "young modern doctor" - whereas in fact it turned out to be a case of "wise owl doctor" saving her from a hysterectomy, greater risk of infection etc.

I wonder why younger doc didn't try it - he looked very sceptical, so obviously not taught as standard practice! Did they have the drugs to stop bleeding in the 60s, I wonder?

As someone who has suffered a PPH I have to agree with all the previous posters that Mary's glowing new mum appearance was very far from realistic. She would have needed a hefty blood transfusion and the risk of infection would have been greatly increased. Had she been lying flat on her back looking pale, weak and listless it might have been a better depiction of the situation. (I was touched by the tears of her husband though!)

Apart from that, I'm really enjoying this. I don't know much about the military accuracy so can't give a qualified opinion on that but I like the story, the setting and the performances. I'm very curious about Alison and why she and her husband are so unhappy. He's obviously a bit of an odd fish and I can't decide if he's just given up on her because she has a history of drinking too much and having affairs or there's something else at play that we haven't discovered yet, possibly something about him that has caused the breakdown.

Anyone watching tonight?