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

I look away from anything involving Dean. My flesh literally creeps.

The across the world phone call nonsense is really annoying me.

It’s all over the place isn’t it. Although I like JJ’s part so far.

Wouldn't the hospital know Kate was using the phone as the bills would be huge?
Her mum seems horrible , mind you, most of them are.

It's only day 2/3 there as his job was second day and now day after when ran kid over

So bills won't be in yet

Not even sure you could direct dial abroad in 1957. And surely the phone in an office would allow overseas calls

*Would NOT allow

I literally had nightmares last night about Dean being cruel to dogs. Part of it was about them being dragged behind cars. Keep thinking about it today, him hitting his dog really affected me. Hope he gets his comeuppance. I'm wondering if the Aborigines will dish out their own justice to him.

Killing the teen and driving off, punching the dog in the head, being a general jittery psycho - he's better get what's coming to him.

I'm still finding Michelle Keegan's look quite distracting. Sunbed tan, dyed black hair, microbladed brows - she just jars for me in that 1950s setting.

Re Michelle Keegan, me too, she looks so out of place.

If you look at 1950s Hollywood, groomed eyebrows and post war in general make up was very much in and fashionable as was dyed hair.

Yes 1950s women were into a bit of post-war glamour but her look is just a bit too 2023 for me. Lip fillers etc.

I don't much like any of the characters , not sure if I'll be watching the rest .

Genuine 1955 glamour. All home made.

None of the characters is sympathetic. They're all liars or morally dubious at the least. If it was really like that then there was nothing attractive about it. It perpetuates the stereotypes of a culture based on criminality.

I wasn't expecting the violence on this

While I don't expect certain realities to be sanitised, I'm not enjoying the violence either. Feeling tense and revolted every time the Dean character is onscreen isn't really my idea of a cosy Sunday eve, so I think I might bow out of this one.

I think the actor who killed the child in the programme should be in a horror movie

I'm
Hoping Dean gets his comeuppance

Well he's a bloody good actor if he makes you feel like that . His character is horrible. I bet the actor who plays him is the total opposite.

E3 tonight

Will try and download it

I had a cousin who emigrated to Australia in 1962/63 and my aunt and uncle had to book a call to him. It was so expensive they only called a couple of times a year — Christmas and his birthday. When calls got cheaper in the 90s, early 2000s my aunt was still intrigued that she could call him direct. Wish she’d lived to see Skype/FaceTime and so on.
I think the instant call via operator seems to be very far fetched.

Delighted to see the vile old scrote get a proper kicking.

It's still full of misery.

Entirely predictable with shite acting. I mean really, who would drive all that way to an orphanage with no strategy like that? It was so obvious that when Kate said how her mother could contact her, it would get straight to the dumped fiancé.

It is absolute tosh when it could be so much better.

God this is really really hard dark watch

The male dancer was lovely.