Prismark10 Our Girl started as a one off film written by Tony Grounds before it was developed by the BBC as a regular television series.Lacey Turner is Molly Dawes, a teenager in Newham, living in an overcrowded house with her siblings. Mum (Kerry Godliman) is pregnant again, Dad (Sean Gallagher) is a bit of a layabout and an unpleasant racist and sexist of the east end type.Molly's boyfriend is a young Muslim who also is another worthless individual who easily cheats on her and really does not value her.So Molly who looks like a bright girl, seems to already have a life which is taking her nowhere with people who are just shiftless. Molly ends up joining the army which gives her life purpose and self esteem.The problem is her family and boyfriend are left befuddled by her decision.However basic training allows her to turn her life around and give her life renewed purpose as she makes new friends and finds out that it is better to help out fellow recruits rather than be a put upon babysitter at home.The series started out with a lot of grittiness of inner London domestic life. Lacey Turner puts in a convincing performance as Molly and it is a refreshing positive portrayal of army life, not sure whether it is very realistic vision of army life and does felt a bit like propaganda as well.Yet the film was better than the subsequent series in my opinion and at least it offered a positive note that a person can have the courage of their convictions to turn their life around.

afortiorama I'm a sucker for these films especially if they involve women. One of my favorite of all time if Private Benjamin with Goldie Hawn. Of course there are differences for example she is a wealthy American woman whose husband dies on the first night so the starting point is slightly different from that of a British girl from a London council estate but the story is the same they both are devalued by their families they both are expected to live vacuous life responding to the clichés that surrounds them and they find a purpose in the army. I think the scene I liked most is when she confronts her father outside the pub and the reading of the letter is really poignant. I quite liked also the TV news commentary at the end asking at what cost the war in Afghanistan has been sustained for 11 years, it was a nice touch few people might have noticed.

Jackson Booth-Millard Since leaving EastEnders the actress best known as Stacey Slater tried other projects, and not really with much success, Switch was dull, only an appearance in Being Human was interesting, but this one off film was her chance to improve. Basically eighteen year old Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner) lives with her family, pregnant mother Belinda (Kerry Godliman) and father Dave (Sean Gallagher) and five siblings, in the London Borough of Newham in a crowded council house, but none of them seem to have any future ahead, and she has Albanian boyfriend Artan (Daniel Black) asking to marry her. When she turns eighteen she has a birthday night out to celebrate, she ends up drunk and being sick, and she finds herself outside the doorway of an army recruitment office with a life size image of an army girl, the next day she returns there to be part of the army, and soon enough she is at an army training centre undergoing physical and mental activities, including long runs, maths tests and presentations about herself. While doing this Molly finds that she can come clean about what a hard life she has had and she gains support from her fellow aspiring soldiers, and in an interview she asks to be given a chance because she has never had one, and as her training goes on she finds that she finally has a purpose, to become a soldier. She does inform her parents of this decision and career choice, while her mother is supportive her father doesn't want to know, but their girl continues on to become a professional soldier serving in Afghanistan, and in the end she writes a potential "letter from the grave", this is where her father does listen and finally is proud of her. Also starring Matthew McNulty as Cpl. Geddings, Andrew Scarborough as Sgt. Peters, Branwell Donaghey as Sergeant Adams, Paul Fox as Sgt. Lamont, Stuart Ward as Lance Corporal Brammer, Steven Miller as Corporal Leech, Harry Ferrier as Chris Ingrams, Mimi Keene as Jade Dawes, McKell Celaschi-David as Dean and Harriet Madeley as Nat. Turner gives a really good performance as the young girl trying to find her way in the world, and finding a determination to achieve something no matter how difficult, I initially watched the first few minutes and thought I was going to get bored, but I luckily stuck with it and it was an interesting youth based near coming-of-age story, a watchable drama. Very good!

Donald Roberts This TV Movie is not Full Metal Jacket, or any other military film focused on coming of age which I have seen. Its heroine is not an introspective youth contemplating the truth of what is going on with the world around her. Instead, she is a highly common modern girl who chances upon the British Army. Like all films of its genre, there is a good deal of yelling and screaming, this is after all boot camp. The characters though do not display heroism or bravado through their yells or screams. Instead it is shown in soft spoken scenes which chronicle Molly's progression. The yelling and screaming is there to create the boot camp atmosphere, not to build character or to be the centre of the film.Some plot holes do exist, and some of the side characters could have done with much more development. However when the constraints of a 90 minute TV Movie, which certainly with the BBC's current climate did not have a very large budget, are applied, these faults become understandable. Also, while I am not sure, I get the feeling that scenes where these grey areas in the plot and the characters are fleshed out were written, but left out do to time constraints.I personally think that Molly speaks to all of us who once dreamed of being in the Army. She is simply an ordinary girl who is given the opportunity to apply herself, and finds that she capable of much more than she thought possible. All of us have a little bit of ourselves that likes to think so. Through her journey Molly most certainly fulfils that part of ourselves which dares to dream upon a whim.