THE DREAM TICKET
Danny Brocklehurst’s first period drama stars Michelle Keegan as a nurse heading to 1950s Australia in search of a fresh start
Period drama might be familiar territory for Sunday night viewers, but it isn’t for Michelle Keegan, the star of Ten Pound Poms, and its Bafta-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst. Danny, 51, had worked with Michelle on the shows Brassic and Ordinary Lies, and decided she was the perfect lead for his first historical series.
Former Coronation Street and
Our Girl actress Michelle, 35, says,
“It’s been really challenging for me and I’ve loved every minute. The series is set in the 50s, so it’s a totally different era, and it’s the first time I’ve appeared in a period drama, but it’s something I have always wanted to do.”
Ten Pound Poms follows three
Brits as they take up the postsecond World War offer of a new life in Australia for just a tenner each. But on their arrival they discover ramshackle accommodation, stifling heat and swarms of insects that are a world away from the shiny lifestyle they’d envisaged.
Danny adds, “I’ve not written a period drama before because they’re generally quite tricky to make good. But I was drawn to the themes of escape, of no matter where we go we take our problems with us – which is ever-present in my work – and the fact that this was a piece of our history I didn’t know much about.
“It’s a period piece that isn’t all bonnets and frocks and the more I looked into it the more I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s definitely a TV series here.’”
In Ten Pound Poms, nurse Kate, played by Michelle, leaves her fiancé in the UK and heads down under. Meanwhile, Annie and Terry (Faye Marsay and Warren Brown) are hoping for a fresh start with their children – and to shake off the drinking he has been using to blot out his war trauma.
“I hadn’t met Faye before,” says
Michelle. “We instantly just clicked. I knew she was going to be my mate and honestly I’ve loved working with her. She’s so talented and we get on because I think we’re quite similar.”
Michelle got a little taste of what the Ten Pound Poms experience was like. “In a way my journey to Australia has parallels with Kate’s,” she says. “It was my first time, too, and I didn’t know what to expect. I came on my own, which was quite scary, but it’s been such an incredible experience.”