TV Series: ANZAC Girls
I watched ANZAC Girls, a six part Australian television drama series that is based on true stories of nurses serving with the Australian Army Nursing Service at Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War. The series is based on Peter Rees' book The Other ANZACs as well as diaries, letters, photographs and historical documents.
The acting was a bit hit and miss at times but overall it was a very interesting series to watch.
The book's based on a book by journalist Peter Rees, it explores the war efforts of five nurses sent to Egypt, the Dardanelles and Lemnos. Rees’ book incorporates real diary entries from serving members of the AANS, and the young protagonists are dramatised versions of the young diarists.
The nurses are Georgia Flood as Sister Alice Ross-King, Anna McGahan as Sister Olive Haynes, Antonia Prebble as Sister Hilda Steele and Laura Brent as Sister Elsie Cook.
I liked Olive and Hilda the most. Olive was very no-nonsense, compassionate and competent. Hilda was the same, although Olive had more screen time. Georgia Flood looks a lot like Carey Mulligan and is pretty but the character of Alice is incredibly annoying and selfish at times, although she does come good in the end. Elsie is lovely but we rarely see much of her beyond her role as a devoted wife waiting for her husband.
The Matron Grace Wilson was played by Caroline Craig
In the earlier episodes, poor Grace and Olive get the rough end of the stick - suffering on a Greek island while Alice is in relative comfort back in Egypt. When they move to France though, Alice and Hilda definitely suffer a great deal.
Of course there were the love interests. Todd Lasance was Major Sydney "Syd" Cook and Elsie's husband, Dustin Clare played Lieutenant Harry Moffitt - Alice's squeeze and I could never really understand what she saw in him. Finally, the only likeable love interest was Brandon McClelland as Lieutenant Norval 'Pat' Dooley.
McClelland is quite cute in real life:
The character's very likeable. The series portrays the difficulties and dangers faced by the nurses during the war. Of equal interest is the discrimination they faced and the difficulties they encountered in being taken seriously not only by the Army but by the British who treated Australian and New Zealand nurses with contempt.