Ten Pound Poms

If I had to summarize my experience of watching 'Ten Pound Poms' so far I would have to say that Danny Brocklehurst was determined to work his story around xenophobia and racism, and chose the Labour Camp outside Sydney as his best way to integrate those themes, as it brought many races closer together. Unfortunately, it makes the story flat as every day we see Terry going off to do his bit in a hole in the ground, and in the evening he gets together with the other immigrants for a drink or party. It's a generalization of course, but many members of the Maltese side of my family went to Australia at this time and they ended up in the big cities. I think this makes the whole story seem untrue. There may have been one of two places that were like the camp, but they were probably the exception rather than the rule and this is where this story falls flat for me.

The production values, acting, scoring, cinematography are all world class. It's just that the story falls flat, it is too crowded, and the characters are not three dimensional enough. I will make an exception for the Terry character, and I think the Michelle Keegan character could have been worked better. The orphanage scene was embarrassing and unconvincing.

I think the subject material needed a more sensitive approach and probably should have come from someone with more first jhand experience of the process of emigration.

The first episode starts very well then it takes a nose dive. The cinematography and acting is superb, it is let down by a very weak script. Other reviews call it 'soap opera' drama and I tend to agree.

The writers had an amazing opportunity here to write a period drama delving in to the issues of the time. Instead we get a bloated over dramatic 'modern show' with nothing new.

If this is renewed for a 2nd season. I hope they tighten up the story focus on fewer characters giving the audience a chance to become invested. And for god sake leave the modern drama tropes behind. There is reality tv for that.

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 was really looking forward to this show as I was a "Ten Pound Pom". I came out to Australia as a member of a large family who emigrated from North Wales. I was hoping it would be a semi accurate reflection of how life was at that time. It's not.

It's a cliched, overblown, melodramatic soap. It's entertaining but completely over the top. I've only watched two episodes and I'll persist but so far we've had a robbery, a break in to steal documents, an aboriginal child killed in a hit and run. Etc.

What next, a bomb scare or a terrorist attack?

I really like the cast, especially Warren Brown who is good in everything but they needed to limit the number of things happening in each episode and rely on character development. It's as if it was a competition to see how many things can happen in each episode. We saw nothing of the journey out here, one of my most vivid memories.

Anyone hoping for anything like an accurate portrayal of life as a Ten Pound Pom will be disappointed. This is more like a series of Coronation Street episodes with better production values. I hope it gets better.

Considering this is supposed to be 1956 I'm pretty sure designer stubble wasn't a thing then it's just not correct it just tries to appeal to modern life .

The two main women characters look more like 1940s with hairstyles from that period and Oxford bags weren't worn by women in mid 50s they would be in capri pants or narrow trousers . When the women are dressed up they are wearing just below the knee sun dresses this length didn't become fashionable until late 1950s.

This reminds me of heartbeat maybe that's the style setting somewhere loosely between 1940and 1965.apart from that it's very watchable.