Our Girl, BBC1: five things you need to know as Michelle Keegan takes on Series 2 of the war drama

The show is back with a brand new lead character and a different setting
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Ben Travis7 September 2016

It’s been two years since Our Girl last graced UK screens – but the war drama is back for more.

The BBC series is returning with a new cast and setting for Series 2 – meaning that new viewers can hop right in.

Here’s what you need to know.

1) Michelle Keegan is the new lead

With original star Lacey Turner unable to shoot another series of Our Girl due to her filming on EastEnders, the new five-part series is shifting focus.

Enter Georgie Lane, played by Michelle Keegan.

“Georgie’s quite a feisty character,” she explains. “She knows what she wants, she’s very hard-working, she’s one of the lads. She’s got a softer side as well.”

It seems the actress got stuck into the combat side of her latest role.

“I learned how to shoot a gun, I learned how to put up with ten lads around me, and I learned how to take orders.”

2) It’s set in Kenya

As well as a new leading role, there’s a fresh setting for Series 2 – Kenya.

The plot sees Georgie join the 2 Section team at a refugee camp near the Somalian border, where she sets out to recover a kidnapped aid worker.

3) Ben Aldrige is back

The connecting tissue between the two series is Ben Aldridge as Captain Charles James – who struck up a relationship with Molly from the first series.

After recovering from his injuries, he’s stationed out in Kenya with his platoon, working alongside Georgie and 2 Section.

4) There’s a love triangle in it

As well as the social and political matters that Georgie is facing, there’s her personal life too – and she’s torn between two men.

“There’s two love stories running through it, it’s like a love triangle,” says Keegan.

One option is Elvis Hart, played by Skins actor Luke Pasqualino, who is Georgie’s ‘first love’.

“He’s a bit of a bad boy, a bit of a geezer,” says Pasqualino. “He’s the loveable rogue.”

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Then there’s Dr Jamie Cole, a paediatrician who actor Royce Pierreson describes as ‘traditional’.

“Georgie’s, I think, the complete opposite of that,” he says. “It’s a real case of opposites attract. They have to work through that in the series – it comes to blows.

“He wants the suburban house, he wants the 2.5 children, he wants that sort of life. He wants to take her away from all of the army stuff.”

5) Keegan wants women to be inspired by it

War stories often end up having a male focus, but Our Girl’s female lead sets the show apart.

“What I’d like people to take away is, there are strong females out there, and I think Georgie Lane is a great role model for young girls to aspire to and look up to,” says Keegan.

“Just go out, be themselves, do whatever they want to do as a career, and make the right decisions in life.”

BBC One, 9pm

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