Lacey Turner opened the series as Molly Dawes, a 19-year-old east Londoner who swaps a supermarket checkout for basic training, then deploys to Helmand as an army medic. The 90-minute pilot (24 Mar 2013) tracked her through sandstorms, sexist banter and the first death of a comrade, drawing 5.2 million viewers and green-lighting a full run. When Turner exited after series one, writer Tony Grounds rebooted with Michelle Keegan's Georgie Lane, an experienced section commander who carries the show through three more deployments: Kenya (2016), Nepal (2017) and a return to Afghanistan (2020). Each series relocates production to match theatre of operations; Camp Bastion was built in the scrub outside Cape Town, Nepalese villages were shot on location in Kathmandu valley, and Malaysian jungle stood in for Belizean rainforest. Keegan announced the fourth run as her finale; the BBC cancelled the show a month after transmission ended. Critics praised the stunt work and Keegan's grounded performance but winced at soap-opera romances grafted onto firefights, noting the drama never quite decided whether war is hell or a dating agency.
Production Details
BBC One / 4 Seasons / 28 Episodes / 2014 - Present
Created by: Tony Grounds
Writer(s): Tony Grounds
Producer(s): Ken Horn Eric Coulter
Main Cast
Shalom Brune-Franklin as Maisie Richards
Ben Aldridge as Captain James
Simon Lennon as Brains
Nick Preston as Mansfield Mike
Badria Timimi as Dr. Bahil
Michelle Keegan as Georgie Lane
Lacey Turner as Molly Dawes
Luke Pasqualino as Elvis Harte
Iwan Rheon as Smurf
Lawrence Walker as Dangleberries
Sean Ward as Fingers
Zubin Varla as Qaseem
