TEN POUND POMS - SUNDAY 9pm bbc. TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

In dreary postwar Manchester, Annie Roberts is at her wits end when husband Terry spends all his wages down the pub. Desperate for a better life for her children, Annie responds to an emigration advert that promises Brits a prosperous new life in Australia for a tenner. Expecting whitewashed houses and sun-soaked adventures, the Roberts family arrive in Sydney to find life down under isn't quite what they've been sold.

Ten Pound Poms is the new original drama series created by BAFTA-winning Danny Brocklehurst (Brassic, Ordinary Lies) produced by Eleven, the team behind the award-winning Sex Education. A co-production between BBC and Stan, the series will premiere on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and as a Stan Original Series in Australia.

The six-part series follows a group of Brits as they leave dreary post-war Britain in 1956 to embark on a life-altering adventure on the other side of the world.

For only a tenner, they have been promised a better house, better job prospects and a better quality of life by the sea in sun-soaked Australia.

But life down under isn’t exactly the idyllic dream the new arrivals have been promised. Struggling with their new identity as immigrants, we follow their triumphs and pitfalls as they adapt to a new life in a new country far from Britain and familiarity.

At the heart of the drama are Annie (Faye Marsay) and Terry Roberts (Warren Brown). They try to make the best of the situation for their family, but the poor living conditions at the hostel and local attitudes towards immigrants test them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.

They aren’t the only people at the hostel avoiding the truth. Kate (Michelle Keegan) is a young nurse who arrives without her fiancé and will do whatever it takes to try and rewrite her devastating past.

Bill (Leon Ford) has lost his family business back home and is so desperate to prove he’s living the Australian dream that he’ll stop at nothing in order to get a lifestyle he can’t sustain.

Teenager Stevie (Declan Coyle) comes from a troubled background and hopes to use this new adventure to escape his oppressive father.

Meanwhile Ron (Rob Collins), an indigenous Australian war veteran, struggles with feeling like an outsider in his own country.

Cast
Michelle Keegan - Kate Thorne
Faye Marsay - Annie Roberts
Warren Brown - Terry Roberts
Hattie Hook - Pattie Roberts
Finn Treacy - Peter Roberts
Stephen Curry - JJ Walker
David Field - Dean
Emma Hamilton - Sheila Anderson
Leon Ford - Bill Anderson
Berynn Schwerdt - Arty
Cheree Cassidy - Marlene
Rob Collins – Ron

Jumping in. Temperature was not measured in Celsius in 57 and if it was the hot you wouldn’t be able to see breath, even at night. Except maybe in the desert. Hot days, hot nights.
My mum actually did cry when she saw the Nissan huts. And apart from Dean, not getting a sense of the bigotry shown to the immigrants I remember. We were called dirty, workshy and snobby.

This drama must have cost a fortune except they paid tuppence ha'penny for the dreadful script and lack of proper period detail. It's not as though the story is compelling. It's just dumbed down crap.

When he said take your gloves off it must be 30 degrees in here I gave up. My mum still doesn’t use Celsius and I only found myself using it automatically in about the 90s (born 1960). Very lazy. The mumsnet stories are far more superior and interesting

Apparently it took 5 months to film. Surely someone at some point must have suggested to drop some of the many many storylines!

Watching now. Appreciate this is a very insignificant detail but the sign above the hostel - did the sites have that in real life? I’m slightly uncomfortable at how much it looks like the one at Auschwitz.

I feel the storyline would be a lot better without the car accident, there’s enough going on without it that it’s just a distraction.

From a previous poster “Only white people were allowed”. Australia had a White Australia policy up until early 70s. It was a hangover from the gold rush, the gov didn’t like Chinese immigrants coming over and getting rich off the suckers chasing the gold.
Sadly I met lots of Deans, and racism was deeply ingrained. I remember my teacher at primary (who was casually racist towards all us immigrants, but especially Poms) telling us that Aborigines weren’t suited to living in houses and if they were “given” them, would ruin them. There were only three aboriginal kids at my school, as a matter of course they were stuck in the “remedial” class,because it wasn’t worth educating them as they’d go walkabout.
I dont remember a lot about the hostel-my mum raging to the superintendent that the hut was full of fleas, food being terrible, luckily dad’s brother lived nearby so we’d often eat there. Hearing about Kennedy’s assassination on the radio, remember it because everything stopped. I know mum and dad were grateful to move out and get a flat.

I enjoyed it but the last episode was very very far fetched I even laughed at it

Giving up on it, I just wanted a fun Sunday night drama and this is too depressing and also too badly done. I have vague but fond memories of The Sullivans tv soap back in the 70s, anyone else remember it? I was very young obvs 😂.

They seemed to be eating in a large area , was their food thrown in as part of the deal too or just one meal a day , or did they have to pay extra for that ?

Decided to catch up on Masterchef rather than watch this.

I had high hopes for this, and hoped it would be more factual, docu-soap sort of thing. It's just too violent and depressing for a Sunday evening and have given up on it.

From a previous poster “Only white people were allowed”. Australia had a White Australia policy up until early 70s

My uncle and aunt went to Australia in the 60s and didn't come back for a visit until the early 70s. He was told by immigration that he wouldn't be allowed back as he'd been born in Pakistan so was clearly not white (grandparents had been on the pre-partition NW Frontier which was where DGF was sent by the army and uncle was born there).

I had to go to Somerset House and get DGPs birth and marriage certs so uncle could prove he was of white British parentage to get back into Oz.

Just carried on watching ep 3 .There don't seem to be any characters with redeeming qualities at all , they're all awful.

I thought this would give us an insight into what it was like then in Australia for the people who went there but it doesn't .

Just watching e3

Havnt read replies yet

But how realistic is it that 2 woman can drive after the war

Some women drove during the war doing war work. Otherwise less likely.

She did say later she drove for the hospital or something like that

Yes I'm glad Dean got a kicking but who was the bloke in the van with the man who beat him up - looked like the copper who came round with a moustache

The dance /tv thing seemed very elaborate

Ans driving hours for the orphanage seemed strange - why didn't she just wear a ring

I assume she will find her son and live happily ever after

Dean is a bit of a wimp qns needs to stand up to bully Dean and the man in the canteen

I'm so rubbish with names

Glad Peter made some real
Human friends and they don't care about his colour of skin

Dean tried to kill him.
I'd be very scared of Dean in real life

Dean tried to kill who ?

The one who was with him in the car that night. (Can't remember these people's names!)
I mean in the first episode when they were at work when he made something roll onto him and it almost killed him. He knew what he was doing

Ah right @purpleme12

Yes his first day he didn't want him to there

Taking oz's work

Dean is a racist and bully

I thought the other guy in the van was the dad of the boy who was killed.

Oh. Was it ?

Peob makes more sense

I have downloaded tonight's to watch on the plane going home x

I don't know why I watch this programme. Its so gloomy

I just can't see how it's ever going to get better for Terry ☹️

I was really hoping the daughter wasn't actually pregnant. Yet another grim storyline. Last night she and Annie looked more like sisters than mum and daughter.