Damned if they do, damned if they don’t: that’s one way of describing the BBC’s approach to depictions of British colonialism. It could also, as it happens, be used for the corporation’s coverage of economic migration. So BBC One’s Ten Pound Poms, a confluence of these two interests, is in rather a tricky position. “Build a new life in Sunny Australia!” beams a seductive 1950s newspaper advert, handled by discontented Northern housewife Annie (Faye Marsay), and soon enough she’s on a voyage to discover a land even more endemically racist than dear old Blighty.
For the princely sum of ten pounds, a group of English dreamers board a steamer for a new life in the Antipodes. Among them are Annie and her husband Terry (Warren Brown), along with their two kids, and the mysterious Kate (Michelle Keegan), travelling alone after ditching her fiancé back at port. Terry calls the opportunity a “fresh start” after struggling with the post-war cocktail of PTSD, alcoholism and economic deprivation. But no sooner have they arrived in Oz than the vision of an exotic new life is punctured. “It’s like a prisoner of war camp,” comes Terry’s verdict on the primitive encampment where the new arrivals are held. From this little civilisation, the Poms will encounter love and loss, tragedy and farce; all with a healthy dollop of melodrama.
