Ten pound Pomx

I watched the whole series on bbc iplayer and I found it very slow but if a second season comes out I won’t be watching it

Yes, I thought that too. With all of Australia to go at she did very well to find him, didn't she?

I've seen it all now, and I did enjoy it, but as a Sunday night soap, not as a documentary. I am quite happy to suspend disbelief for the sake of entertainment, which you certainly needed to do for this series. Sunday night telly doesn't set out to be educational, thank goodness.

It was left open for another series - does anyone know if there is one planned?

I'm astonished that the nurse found where her son was so easily

I'm astonished that the nurse found where her was so easily.

I’ve been watching it and it’s pretty much as I expected. Most films have a really bad guy, a beautiful woman, a love affair, a secret etc.

In the late 70s I worked with a an older woman who had split with her husband. he saw the 3 kids often and said he wanted to take them on holiday. She agreed but he actually took them to Australia and never came back!!

She could get no help from anywhere back then but I hope it’s different now. I often wonder whether they were ever reunited.

It's interesting to have the viewpoint of someone who was a £10 POM and has lived there for many years.
Many people have views of what they think it is like but only those from various cultures who have a lived experience actually know.

I think much of Ten Pound Poms is based on stereotypes, the good and the bad and they have taken the worst and best traits and emphasised them in portraying the various characters.

It's OTT and much is rather ridiculous.

Franbern I do agree that many people in the UK had similarly disgusting views about other races at that time but I do not accept that it was everyone.
The same with Australia. Not everyone was like the revolting Dean. He's a caricature.
They all seem to be in that programme.

Totally agree with Anniel’s comments. It is a fictional drama of how people like to think of life in Australia then. They are not going to tell people how good it was, are they? There would be no story plus everyone would want to emigrate! I have lived here for over 50 years now and not one bit of that rubbish is true as far as I’m concerned. Typical ‘political correctness’ and slanted views of history. Now it is not all sunshine and happiness and, dare I say it, it is a lot,lot worse now as regards how things are run and those who are political figures than it was 50 years ago. We have not a single decent politician in the country that I can think of and everyone I know agrees.

I watched the new ‘Midsomer Murders’ instead of ‘£10 Poms’ last night.

MM was the usual far fetched stuff, but it appealed more than TPP which is telling.

I shall catch up with it later, but it doesn’t draw me in really.

However, I’ve started (watching it) so will finish.

Franbern I do agree that many people in the UK had similarly disgusting views about other races at that time but I do not accept that it was everyone. Certainly my parents were not prejudiced in the sense that they would treat people differently. Although my Mum had some daft, stereotypical, views (black people have such a wonderful sense of rhythm, etc, etc.), she would never in a million years intentionally hurt or disrespect someone.

I've only just started watching this. It is very like a soap and the plot lines are numerous and really over the top but I have to confess I enjoyed it.

The treatment of indigenous Australians at that time is, I believe, realistic - and shocking.

I have known two lots of people who went there in the 60's. My next door neighbour's two girls went there and I believe they got on OK but, nevertheless, returned. Another friend of my Mum and Dad's went there with a friend. They both hated it and returned as soon as they could afford to. On the other hand, someone in my son's girlfriend's family has emigrated there with her husband and they seem to be doing very well and appear to want to stay there.

I expect things have changed since the sixties but the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers is, in my opinion, pretty awful. And their treatment of indigenous Australians isn't great either.

suzikyoo

I do remember seeing all the glossy brochures with lovely houses etc from when my DB and SIL applied and learning that the truth was somewhat different.

I also would like to have found out about two little boys who were sent out by their mother against the grandmothers' wishes under the Child Migrant Programme, grandmother was a friend of our family and never got over it.
Australian children were sent to those homes too if family circumstances were difficult. ☹

In the early sixties I worked with someone who had been taken by her family to live in Australia and they returned. One of the reasons she said was the general behaviour of the Australians. She gave as an example that they would visit the house and without asking would just help themselves out of the fridge etc. There were other reasons of course but that was what I remembered so cultural differences were obviously a factor.

I watched about twenty minutes of it the other day. That was enough for me.

Aveline

Suzykyoo is the drama true to life as you remember it? Australia must have seemed such a striking contrast to the UK. I can understand why people might have taken up the offer but also why they were so unhappy there. What an upheaval and dislocation of life. I bet your extended families were glad to see you home again.

Having now seen the second episode, I agree it is veering more towards a soap. But the conditions immigrants were subject to is authentic. I was lucky in that I stayed with my fiance but the friends I made on the ship going out were housed in awful Nissen huts. The roll call of jobs each morning were only given to poms if no Aussie wanted them, which is fair enough, I suppose. One of the Aussie colleagues I worked with had a daughter who was unable to get pregnant and so was given an Aboriginal child. I often wondered if the child's parents had had a say in this but no-one seemed perturbed. The advertisements about all sunshine and cosy brick-veneer bungalows are totally authentic. I remember being told at the Migrant office before I left how rosy everything would be but the reality was different. How many times did I hear the phrase 'I hate you poms'. So many poor souls I met who had sold everything to get the money to make the trip could not afford to come back. (Let's not forget this was not long after the war and £10 was a heck of a lot of money then). Fellow poms often admitted to me that they had told their families back home how wonderful it was and how well they were doing so as to neither cause their families worry nor to be seen as having made a mistake. Of course I also met poms who were glad they had made the choice and were happy there, but interestingly I found them always to be of a certain type. This was my personal experience.

My "best" friend and her fiance emigrated in the mid 1960s. I did consder going as I was a qualified librarian and professional people were much in demand. However I discovered I would only be paid 2/3 of a mans wage and that put me off big time. At least I was paid the same in UK.

My friend and her husband did well. I know they had to work hard but they ended up with a good life and their own business - an emu farm. They came back for a visit in the mid 1980s when I had just begun at uni as a mature student. I was surprised at just how Australian they sounded and they confessed to having gone to classes to lose their accents.

Being at a uni and surrounded by international students I did find their racist language off putting - they referred to the indigenous people as "abbos". But that was back in 1986 and I expect things have changed now.

I have rather lost touch with them in recent years and this program makes me want tolook them up again.

It's just too much!
Every character is exaggerated.

I actually enjoyed the second episode. Not enough to watch the rest on iplayer though - I can wait till next Sunday.

Exactly so LRavenscroft

Anniel

We went to South Australia in 1949.We were in a camp on the banks of the Torrens river in Adelaide where we stayed a short while to learn about Australia. Then we went to a small town 300 miles from Adelaide. I thought this programme was not representative. Aborigines were not a large feature in the life I led as a teenager. School friends ribbed me about my Liverpool accent but I soon settled and made good friends. Many women missed their mums and could not settle. Australians did not like “whinging Poms” and made it clear you could leave if you did not want to.

I watched 2 or 3 episodes but thought this series was not true to life.Husband and I made two trips back and returned to England in 1975 when Papua New Guinea achieved inderpdndence. My 3 children are all Australians and I love the country and the people. This series does not tell my family’s story and I did not recognise my reality.

Thank you, Anniel, for your review and for sharing your experience. I have given up watching the series after two episodes as I did not feel it would have reflected the real Australia of the time. For me personally, we seem to have a penchant in the UK for over doing the drama in a production, rather than letting the characters and landscape and wherever possible skilled camera work and production do the work.

I saw episode 2 last night, and am enjoying it. I'm looking at it as a drama set against the backdrop of 50's Australia, rather than a documentary though.

Not bonded with any of the characters. I don’t think Annie would have landed a supervisor’s job on her first visit to the store. Dean is awful, supposed to show us what being a tough Aussie is like. Just a bully really.

I shall keep watching, mainly because there is not much else on.

Just binge watched on iplayer. Really enjoyed it. Just give it a chance x

CountessFosco

Another personal reflection : friend who accompanied me daily on the bus {see above} was looking for a more suitable position. There was one such available in our company, so I was suggested she come for an interview.
Answer from personnel chief "we doan want anymore of your South African friends heya". Fairly typical in our experience

Yes, but that was happening here in the UK too, it happened to me and I was only relocating within England!
I've never forgotten it.

It may have been just the one bigoted person, like the one who interviewed me.

Lots of South Africans have relocated to Australia recently. There are people from countries all around the world who have settled there, very few of British origin in many areas.

Thanks Annie1 interesting to hear.

We went to South Australia in 1949.We were in a camp on the banks of the Torrens river in Adelaide where we stayed a short while to learn about Australia. Then we went to a small town 300 miles from Adelaide. I thought this programme was not representative. Aborigines were not a large feature in the life I led as a teenager. School friends ribbed me about my Liverpool accent but I soon settled and made good friends. Many women missed their mums and could not settle. Australians did not like “whinging Poms” and made it clear you could leave if you did not want to.

I watched 2 or 3 episodes but thought this series was not true to life.Husband and I made two trips back and returned to England in 1975 when Papua New Guinea achieved inderpdndence. My 3 children are all Australians and I love the country and the people. This series does not tell my family’s story and I did not recognise my reality.