Ten Pound Poms takes inspiration from a real period in history, and those tuning in are asking how accurate the series really is.
When a historical drama airs, it usually results in viewers wanting to know more about the events depicted – and Ten Pound Poms is no different. Following a group of Britons who emigrated to Australia in the aftermath of World War 2 on the Australian government’s assisted passage scheme, the series covers a very interesting time in UK history.
Those interested in the show have not only been asking where Ten Pound Poms filmed, but also just how much of the series really took place. We delve into what really happened to the post-war folk desperate for new lives, who made the long trip down under only to face disappointment and hardship.
How much of Ten Pound Poms is true?
Although the characters featured in Ten Pound Poms are fictional, a lot of their experiences accurately reflect those of the real people who took up the £10 passage to Australia offer. In 1945, Australia had a small population and several booming industries – and not enough people to fill the available work positions.
In the aftermath of a war-ravaged Britain still suffering at the hands of rationing, the Australian government subsidised boat fares to allow not just those from Britain, although they made up the majority who took up the offer, to sail down under for just £10.
With promises of help to find jobs and housing at the end of their journey, it almost seemed too good to be true – and for many, it was. The deal came with the catch that if you took it up, you had to stay in Australia for a minimum of two years or have to pay £130 to return – a price that was simply unaffordable to those who purchased a £10 ticket.
As depicted in the show, many of those who left for Australia did so being sold a picture of white washed houses and large gardens – like the series shows, they were often housed in former war camps and faced hostility from the locals.
To work their way out of those conditions was very difficult for many, who had to put in serious amounts of incredibly hard work before getting getting anywhere near the dream of the big house and better life.
However, Dr Jim Hammerton, who penned the book Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants, points out to the BBC that while the huts housing the migrants in the series are in rural areas, this wouldn’t be the case in reality. Most would be in cities and suburbs to increase employment, and being housed in the outback wouldn’t really happen.
He also suggests class and regional prejudice within the migrant community were higher than portrayed by the series, deeming it “a bit unrealistic in showing British migrant workers getting friendly with the Aboriginal characters,” although this did sometimes happen.
(Image credit: BBC/Eleven Film/Lisa Tomasetti)
Despite minor differences in the series and real life – which are likely for narrative reasons, the producers of Ten Pound Poms went to many lengths to ensure the story they told was as authentic as possible and showed multiple points of view.
According to a report from The Guardian, Aboriginal film-maker Ryan Griffen was consulted about the show to bolster the story from both an Australian and a First Nations’ perspective.
The show portrays Britons as the mistreated migrants in a time where British immigration policy took a turn for the worse, while showing what can happen when migrants arrive to a country unsupported.
(Image credit: BBC/Eleven Film/Lisa Tomasetti)
Michelle Keegan’s character, Kate, also depicts the many women who lost children to the child migrant programme that saw more than 130,000 children sent to former colonies, usually Australia and Canada, between the 1920s to 1970s.
The children, mostly born to single mothers forced to give them up, were often sent away without their parent’s consent and told they were orphans once they arrived at their destination.
While some mothers did give their consent, they believed they were sending their children away to a better life, when in fact they were forced into was a childhood of servitude and hard labour and some subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
Speaking about Kate’s quest to find her son – adopted to an Australian family without her consent, Michelle Keegan says, “As we saw in the first series, Kate’s son Michael was sent to Australia in the care system and was adopted into an Australian family, which Kate didn’t know. Trying to find him is what took her to Australia.”
She adds, “This series is really about Kate trying to expose the fact that her and her son have been separated against her wishes, which happened to so many families and to so many women in the 1950s, it’s absolutely heartbreaking.”
