Ten Pound Poms is BBC's new Sunday night drama and viewers have been gripped since it made its debut on May 14. The six-part series starring Michelle Keegan follows a group of Brits as they leave dreary post-war Britain in 1956 to embark on a life-altering adventure in Australia
Michelle plays Kate, a nurse who has left the UK to go to Australia for a very different reason from the rest of the characters. Speaking of her character, Michelle explained: "She has an emotional connection to the country and we find out as the show progresses what her intentions are and why she has gone there."
She stars alongside an incredible cast list, including Warren Brown and Faye Marsay, as well as Hattie Hook, Finn Treacy, Leon Ford and Rob Collins and many more. Ten Pound Poms is created by BAFTA-winning Danny Brocklehurst (Brassic, Ordinary Lies) and produced by Eleven, the team behind the award-winning and Welsh-filmed Sex Education.
Read more: BBC Ten Pound Poms start date, full cast list, plot, locations and how many episodes
And while the characters and the stories in Ten Pound Poms are works of fiction, the Assisted Migration scheme of the 1950s, which intended to substantially increase the population of Australia and to supply workers for the country’s booming industries, did exist.
According to the BBC, the Ten Pound Poms scheme attracted more than a million migrants from the British Isles between 1945 and 1972. Ten pounds, which is the equivalent of around £350 today, bought a six-week assisted passage on chartered ships and aircraft and the promise of good employment prospects, affordable housing, endless sunshine, and a brand new, more optimistic life down under. However, as the series explores, on arrival, migrants were sometimes placed in basic migration hostels and the expected job opportunities were not always readily available. You can read more about the plot here.
BBC Ten Pound Poms full cast list
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
Ten Pound Poms will continue on Sundays at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Alternatively, all episodes are available to binge on iPlayer now. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
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