The SETTING SUN
A powerful drama explores the dangers faced by a ROYAL MILITARY POLICE unit in the last days of the British Empire
IN THE BUSTLING PORT of Aden in the 1960s, the British Army faced an unwinnable battle to try to keep order in one of the few remaining colonies in the British Empire.
BBC1’S compelling six-part drama The Last Post centres on the dangers and dilemmas experienced by a Royal Military Police unit stationed in Aden in 1965.
While the soldiers deal with hostility from insurgents who resent them as an occupying force, their personal lives come to the fore, with much of the action seen through the eyes of the officers’ wives.
Struggling to steer his men safely through the tensions is Major Harry Markham, played by Ben Miles, the commanding officer of the unit.
‘Harry is traditional and believes in the British Empire as a benign, civilising force and he is trying to maintain order and decency in a world that’s changing all around him,’ says Miles, 50, best known for his roles in Coupling and The Crown.
‘Aden [now part of Yemen] in the mid-1960s was still old world Britannia, but the UK was undergoing a drastic shift in attitudes at the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, so the series is about different reactions to those changes.’
While the men undergo life-ordeath conflicts, their wives have other challenges. Although Harry’s pregnant wife Mary (Amanda Drew) provides sterling support to both her husband and the other women on the base, wild child Alison Laithwaite (Jessica Raine) causes ructions with her drinking and dalliances with other men. Her behaviour casts a shadow over the career prospects of her already unpopular husband Lieutenant Ed Laithwaite
(Stephen Campbell Moore).
‘Alison and Ed are both rule breakers who question the fabric of Army life so they are a subversive couple,’ says former Call the Midwife star Raine, 35. ‘Alison is witty but hums with dissatisfaction, is climbing the walls with boredom and is on a path of self-destruction. She’s very liberated, so to be locked away on an Army base is hell – but she gamely tries to survive
by throwing herself into drinking and dancing.’
In sharp contrast to Alison is bubbly newlywed Honor Martin, played by War and Peace’s
Jessie Buckley, who arrives in Aden with husband Joe Martin (Jeremy Neumark-jones), the unit’s enigmatic new captain. But it’s not long before cracks appear in Honor’s seemingly perfect life.
‘She arrives enthusiastic and wanting to soak up this exotic world,’ says Buckley, 27. ‘Little does she know that parameters don’t just exist around the Army barracks, but within her own marriage. But through her friendships with the other wives she grows up and realises what is needed to survive the brutality of war.’
The drama was filmed in South Africa where the actresses became close while filming scenes set on the base. The men also bonded when they attended a military boot camp to prepare for their roles.
‘It was so hot, but luckily the military gear was designed for the heat,’ says Miles. ‘We learned how a rifle works and about the order of rank and file. Because my character Harry is in charge I got to tell the others what to do, which was great, but I lost my voice on the first day from barking orders!’