Brassic and Our Girl star Michelle Keegan will lead the cast of Stan and the BBC’s Ten Pound Poms, now shooting across NSW.
From UK production company Eleven, whose productions include Sex Education, and created by Danny Brocklehurst (Brassic, Ordinary Lies), the six-part series is set in 1956 follows a group of Brits as they leave post-war Britain to embark on a life altering adventure on the other side of the world. For only a tenner, they have been promised a better house, better job prospects and a better quality of life by the sea in sun-soaked Australia. But life down under isn’t exactly the idyllic dream the new arrivals have been promised.
The cast also includes Faye Marsay (Game of Thrones, Black Mirror) and Warren Brown (The Responder, Luther), alongside Rob Collins, Leon Ford, Declan Coyle, David Field, Stephen Curry, Hattie Hook, Finn Treacy, and Emma Hamilton.
At the heart of the drama are Annie (Marsay) and Terry Roberts (Brown), who try to make the best of the situation for their family, but the poor living conditions at the migrant hostel and local attitudes towards immigrants test them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.
Kate (Keegan) is a young nurse who arrives without her fiancé and will do whatever it takes to try and rewrite her devastating past. Bill (Ford) has lost his family business back home and is so desperate to prove he’s living the Australian dream that he’ll stop at nothing in order to get a lifestyle he can’t sustain. Teenager Stevie (Coyle) comes from a troubled background and hopes to use this new adventure to escape his oppressive father. Meanwhile, Ron Collins), an Indigenous Australian war veteran, struggles with feeling like an outsider in his own country.
Brocklehurst has written the series with Ryan Griffen, Smita Bhide and Ava Bickett. Directing are Jamie Stone and Ana Kokkinos.
Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell executive produce for Eleven, and Olivia Trench will co-executive produce the series. Tommy Bulfin executive produces for the BBC and Amanda Duthie and Cailah Scobie for Stan.
Curio Pictures is providing production services in Australia.
Heads of department include cinematographer Meg White.
Ten Pound Poms has recieved a $2.6 million grant from the Federal Government to shoot in Australia under the Location Incentive program, with the expectation it employ 200 Australian cast and crew, and more than 1000 Australian extras. A further $2 million has been provided via the NSW government’s Made in NSW fund.
Sony Pictures Television (SPT) will distribute the series worldwide.