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Our Girl is the BBC’s war drama for which I never saw the first series, but this second one sees a change of lead character, and therefore actress, as ex-Corrie‘s Michelle Keegan takes charge as Lance Corporal Georgie Lane, the new army medic out in Kenya on a six-week humanitarian mission; a new location after series one took place in Afghanistan, with Eastenders’ Lacey Turner as Molly Dawes.
While Kenya may seem like a bed of roses by comparison to a place where the war has raged for over fifty years, and so there is zero point in us sending troops to die, needlessly, in Afghanistan, Kenya is not quite what it seems, either. To that end, amusingly, Georgie states “Six weeks? Wasn’t that what they said before the start of World War I?”
On arrival, she she suffers sexist comments from some of the male colleagues, and also finds there are no doctors left, as they were either captured or left, so there’s just nurses, so at their outpost, it’s hard to get good healthcare. Intriguingly, the nurses have resorted to giving out Tic Tacs as placebos, since it placates a lot of the patients in a place where there are few solutions to their pain.
When all the army/war elements kick in, it’s a pretty decent drama, but for a fair portion rest of the time, there are fairly run-of-the-mill day-to-day events being covered. Oh, and Georgie is full of spray tan and impossibly glistening and sexy, so the complete opposite to looking how life would be in the desert. Still, it improves the programme.
Our Girl Series 2 is available to pre-order on DVD, and also a Series 1 & 2 DVD Boxset, ahead of its release on October 17th, and the episode is available to watch on BBC iPlayer until October 7th. Also, click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Episode 1 Score: 7/10
Director: Jan Matthys
Producer: Eric Coulter
Writer: Tony Grounds
Music: Ben Foster
Cast:
Georgie Lane: Michelle Keegan
Captain James: Ben Aldridge
Elvis Harte: Luke Pasqualino
Dr Jamie Cole: Royce Pierreson
Grace Lane: Angela Lonsdale
Max Lane: Sean Gilder
Marie Lane: Linzey Cocker
Lulu Lane: Molly Wright
Nan: Joan Kempson
Cox: Mark Beswick
Jenkinson: Lee Worswick
Captain Osman: Anthony Oseyemi
Sergeant King: Rolan Bell
Mansfield Mike: Nick Preston
Monk: Sean Sagar
Brains: Simon Lennon
Dangleberries: Lawrence Walker
Fingers: Sean Ward
Nafula: Yusra Warsama
Kicki: Anna Tenta
Jomo: Likho Mango
Sidiq: Amdi Mohamud Osman
Abu Jasser: Michael James
Zeki: Hlayani Mabasa
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.