Great Paxford’s Women’s Institute becomes the last line of defence against hunger, fear and gossip after war is declared in 1939. Samantha Bond’s calm Frances Barden spars with Francesca Annis’ patrician Joyce Cameron for control of the institute while ration books, evacuees and telegrams from the front remake the village. Claire Rushbrook’s Pat hides bruises from her failed-writer husband Bob; Clare Calbraith’s Steph waves her farmer husband off to enlist; new teacher Leanne Best arrives with secrets stitched into her coat lining.
Series two opened to 5.2 million viewers in April 2016, then ITV cancelled the drama the following month, leaving the women stranded in 1941 with France fallen and America still neutral. Creator Simon Block adapted Julie Summers’ social history “Jambusters” into twelve 45-minute episodes that favoured jam-making tensions over battlefield heroics, shot in the honey-stone villages of Cheshire and Berkshire. The theme, a plaintive string lament by Samuel Sim, plays over sepia photographs of WI members whose real wartime recipes appeared in the credits.
A #SaveHomeFires petition and press campaign could not shift ITV’s decision; the sets were struck and the cast released, though Masterpiece funding leaves a faint hope of conclusion elsewhere. Fans still swap lemon barley cake recipes onFacebook and pin victory-roll tutorials to Pinterest, keeping the fictional village alive longer than the actual programme survived.
Production Details
ITV1 / 2 Seasons / 12 Episodes / 2015 - Present
Created by: Catherine Oldfield
Producer(s): Sue de Beauvoir
Main Cast
Samantha Bond as Frances Barden
Ruth Gemmell as Sarah Collingborne
Claire Rushbrook as Pat Simms
Fenella Woolgar as Alison Scotlock
Clare Calbraith as Steph Farrow
Daisy Badger as Claire Hillman
Leanne Best as Teresa Fenchurch
Leila Mimmack as Laura Campbell
Claire Price as Miriam Brindsley
Frances Grey as Erica Campbell
Mark Bazeley as Bob Simms
Ed Stoppard as Will Campbell
