Ten Pound Poms

In the 60's most large establishments had switchboard operators , like Hotels and Hospitals . To make an overseas phone call you would call the international operator , give them the country and phone number and the operator would call back when call was connected . This series was set in 1956 . From the 40's and onwards everyone had Radios for music and entertainment as well as for the BBC news and Cricket . Throughout this series no one had a radio . Radios were as popular then as mobile phones are as popular today . Steven Curry was completely outstanding as J. J. plus all the main character child actors were really good .

I've often wondered why the Aussies call us whinging poms. After watching this six part BBC drama it would seem they had a lot to whinge about. Placed in cockroach infested one bedroom huts on some multi national camp in the middle of nowhere.

Whilst the show has some high quality production, with some impressive CGI and great attention to detail from the period. It's unfortunately let down with some just plane daft storylines like Michele Keegans character travelling the other side of the world in search of her son, after drugging her fiancé who seamed a perfectly decent bloke to go after her son.

Our Australian friends don't come out of the series to well with most being stereotyped as hard drinking wife beating foul mouthed Aborigines hater's.

Overall it feels like a wasted opportunity as the story itself is a fascinating one about a forgotten part of Anglo Australian history.

6/10.

As much as this was a depiction of what happened when Ten Pound Poms came to Australia, I think the important thing to remember is that this is a drama show, not history. Having said that, an old ex of mine was a 6 year old when his family came to Australia on a boat, landing in Perth and then Sydney, before being transported to Ipswich, Queensland. They were also under the impression that they would have somewhere to live and jobs would be plentiful. The accommodation was very much what was shown here, and the attitude towards the "Poms" was very much the case in this show. I really hope that there is a season 2, it was a little slow to start but it got better as it went along. Loved the style of the era and the depiction of Australia at the time. Although I have to say that I found the racism awful and I was bubbling with anger as I watched. Sad to think that the Australian "spirit" was severely lacking.

I was a member of the family of £10 poms at around the same time as this drama is set and, although I was around 5, I have many vivid memories of that time as well as overhearing stories when my parents and their friends got together. Granted we only stayed on the hostel for around six months but I got the impression it was an exciting time for adults as well as kids. Maybe we were lucky being so close to the beach and the relatively big urban area of Wollongong. Our hostel was Balgownie, not to be confused with the fictitious 'Galgownie' which seemed to be simultaneously in the Outback and near the beach! Most hostels, in NSW at least, were near major urban centres and were nothing like depicted in the show. Jobs were plentiful and we were given a house in pretty short order. Most of the streets in the equivalent of UK council housing areas were 50/50 Aussie and mainly British immigrant families. There was never a hint of xenophobia from the Aussies and everyone just got on...probably down to the shared experience of WW2. Diggers and Tommies sharing war stories. Southern European immigrants probably weren't so lucky. Not exactly a premise for riveting drama, so can't really blame the makers for ratcheting up the tensions and concentrating them in a short time frame. Just don't watch it as a documentary!

Not an unforgettable drama or a terrible one, somewhere in the middle. One of those shows where you should probably bail if the characters and storyline in the first episode don't grab you.

It had decent production values, with a few sound and lighting wobbles and a solid ensemble cast. Michelle Keegan's character felt a bit far-fetched in some of her endeavours, but fans will no doubt forgive her. One of its strengths was the number of strong female characters.

If you get on board with the first episode stay with it, if you don't jump ship as it continues along the same path.

On the downside there was a lot of heavy-handed messaging that didn't need to be there.