The nights may be getting lighter meaning the weekends are feeling longer but still nothing beats settling down on a Sunday night with a box set or drama. This weekend, specifically from Sunday (May 14), the BBC will be airing its new original series, Ten Pound Poms.
The six-part series will begin on BBC One at 9pm, with new episodes airing each Sunday for six weeks. But for those who like to binge their TV series, all episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer as a box set after the first episode airs.
But what's it about? It 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.
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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.
As for what Ten Pound Poms means, it is a colloquial term used to describe British citizens who migrated to Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War.
The Government of Australia initiated the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme in 1945 and the Government of New Zealand initiated a similar scheme in July 1947. It formed part of the Australian 'Populate or Perish' policy intended to substantially increase the population of Australia and to supply workers for the country’s booming industries.
The Ten Pound Poms scheme attracted more than a million migrants from the British Isles between 1945 and 1972. In 1957 more migrants were encouraged to travel following a campaign called 'Bring Out a Briton'. The scheme reached its peak in 1969 when more than 80,000 migrants took advantage of the scheme.
Ten Pounds 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, on arrival, migrants were placed in basic migration hostels and the expected job opportunities were not always readily available.
The charge of £10 covered processing fees for migration whilst "youngsters under 19" travelled for free. In 1973 the cost was increased to £75 and the scheme ended in 1982. And today, Ten Pounds is the equivalent of some £350 today.
Almost one million Brits emigrated to Australia and the scheme extended to residents of British colonies such as Malta and Cyprus, with schemes to assist selected migrants from the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and West Germany in the fifties. Migrants were required to remain in Australia for two years or refund the cost of their assisted passage.
The cost of a return journey to Britain was at least £120, some £4,200 in today’s money which most could not afford. An estimated quarter of British migrants returned to the UK within the first two years although half of these – the so-called “Boomerang Poms” – returned to Australia.
And according to the BBC, Kylie and Dannii Minogue, both born in Melbourne, are the daughters of Ten Pound Poms. Their parents - car company accountant Ronald Minogue and his wife Carole Ann, a former ballet dancer - moved to Australia in 1958 on the ship Fairsea. So Kylie and Dannii are of English and Welsh descent, although their surname is of Irish origin
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