There has been so much great television over past months that I have struggled where to begin but the best single programme has been Our Girl first broadcast a month ago 24 March 2013 with an outstanding performance by Lacey Turner as the young Eastender good time loser, the eldest of a struggling large family with an out of work family in a estate flat who finds in the army a surrogate family. Contrary to some critics I thought depiction of training realistic and unlikely to lead to a increase in recruitment for the film proved that determination and grit is not sufficient to make a career in the modern army. True it offers an opportunity to those who have failed at school or find getting a job which satisfies difficult to impossible but without having qualities which need to brought out the majority of young people will not make the combination of quick thinking, common sense, courage, and physical ability required.
Our girl trains as a medical assistant and after qualifying goes out to Afghanistan. Her father rejects her after she turns down the offer of marriage from someone who an provide him with fresh start employment after the accident which led to his unemployment and general hostility to the
world. Her former female friends also reject when she is not prepared to slip back into her former ways of heavy drinking and casual sex. She overcomes the disappointment when her parents fail to attend the passing out parade after basic training although her mother finds a way of having a brief meeting before the girl goes overseas. The film ends with the return of a coffin with military honours and flowers made out into Our Girl. It is not our girl in question where both parents are relieved and proud when she returns home.
The critic who reported this as a recruiting film for the army must have been watching a different edition. A memorable acting performance and a memorable film.
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