Home Fires Season 1 Episode 3 Review
Home Fires Season 1 Episode 3 Review
It’s now November 1939. As the conflict rages in Europe, internal turmoil brews at home.
Farming is a reserved occupation, so Stanley Farrow is exempt from compulsory service. He feels it is his duty to fight and seeks counsel from Rev. Collingborne. Finding no help from the good padre, he broods about his decision. In a delicately drawn scene, his stalwart wife, Steph, tells him to go. “I know every inch of you, man, inside and out. Always have, always will.”
Rev. Collingborne also decides to enlist, explaining to Sarah that, “There are boys from Great Paxford who will shortly find themselves screaming out for their mothers in fear or pain. Their mothers won’t be able to help them in their hour of need. But I can.”
Meanwhile, Joyce and Frances are firing salvoes at each other. Frances is convinced Joyce orchestrated the requisitioning of her gates for war materials. She also suspects Joyce is behind a notice to the WI that they need a tea and biscuit license—costing 5 pounds. Not to be outdone, Frances arranges for Joyce’s tennis courts to be included in the list of available open space for food production. Joyce is not pleased.
Alison Scotlock receives a most unwelcome bill from the vet that treated Borris and makes the ill-timed decision to borrow the necessary sum from the WI cash box. We’re screaming “don’t do it” as she hesitates before posting the payment.
The next thing we know, Frances is calling for an audit of the WI account and Alison must take the shady bookkeeping job that Mr. Driscoll offered her to replenish the funds before the audit. Just this once, she tells him. Only it’s never “just once.”
Pat shines when she delivers an address to the Ministry of Food on behalf of the WI. After a shaky start, she settles in a delivers a stirring speech.
“We can—and must—work together to make a definitive contribution towards insuring the survival of the home front. This may be the time for our men to fight, but make no mistake, ladies. This is our time, too.”
She receives a rousing response from all in attendance, except for her sour husband who has been hired to write a newspaper report of the meeting. He cannot tolerate her success and unleashes his fury on her later that evening, knocking her to the floor. The Campbells hear the crash and come to the door to see if everything is alright. Bob puts them off, but we’re hopeful that his abuse will soon come to light.
Weaving through these dark days is the happiness of the wedding of Kate Campbell to her handsome RAF pilot Jack. A particularly poignant scene takes place at the reception. The couples that we’ve come to know—who will soon by separated by the war—show us their connection in the intimacy of a last dance.
The episode ends as the bus pulls out of Great Paxford, carrying Stanley Farrow and Rev. Collingborne into the unknown, leaving their wives and children in the unknown.
