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