Homely girls

CLAIRE SKINNER is no stranger to high-profile roles.

She’s the long-suffering mum in TV sitcom Outnumbered, and also starred in last year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, but it seems even she was slightly daunted by appearing in ITV’s Homefront.

The drama series focuses on a group of women who are trying to keep the home fires burning while their husbands are serving in Afghanistan . “I did feel an extra responsibility to get this right,”

says Skinner.

“The last thing you would want to do is upset anyone serving in Afghanistan or their families back home. Everyone was very aware and respectful of that.”

She was keen to do her research. “I actually spoke to the wife of an officer who had come up through the ranks. I was struck by how much they have to cope with on their own and be the person that absorbs the lot,” she recalls.

“There doesn’t seem to be much outlet for the women other than the wives themselves.

Even then, there is a wariness between the ranks – the wives wear their husband’s rank a bit. I was also struck by how different from my actor’s life it all is.

It almost seems impossible to me how they do it.”

Her character – also called Claire – is negotiating a new world. After the end of her first marriage, she met widowed Major Pete Bartham (Greg Wise) via a dating website. The couple are now engaged, and Claire finds herself not only trying to get to grips with military life, but also caring for her rebellious soon-tobe stepdaughter.

There’s also the ever-present fear of a knock at the door bringing bad news: “It feels like a dread they live with. That’s captured very well in the opening episode. I can’t imagine what it must be like. You’d be nervous all the time.”

In the opening episode, it’s Tasha (Antonia Thomas) who discovers her husband Matt has been killed in action. Her mother-in-law and veteran Army wife Paula (Clare Higgins) initially throws herself into arranging a military send-off, but soon starts asking questions about exactly how and why her son died.

Claire proves she’s officer’s wife material by being there to comfort Tasha, while ultra-confident Louise (Nicola Stephenson) is left questioning herself and her marriage when someone anonymously sends her an image of her husband Joe (Warren Brown) in a compromising position with another woman.

HISTORIAN Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langland and Peter Ginn have hit upon the perfect formula.

Part historical documentary, part reality TV show, their programmes have taken in Victorian and Edwardian eras in previous runs before fast-forwarding to the Second World War for this latest series of Wartime Farm.

This week, they continue to uncover first-hand the hardships faced by farmers in the 1930s and 1940s and learn how government productivity targets put pressure on farmers.

Upwards of 2,000 people were thrown off their land for failing to meet the strict wartime quotas imposed on them by officials, and the trio face a real challenge as they try to bring their own farm up to scratch following an inspection.

They also attempt to get to grips with some of the machinery used at the time, but their milk-making operation is put in real jeopardy by the loss of a prime dairy cow.

TONIGHT’S episode of Heroes of the Sky sheds light on an unsung warrior.

It focuses on the chequered career and exploits of one of the greatest fighter pilots of the Second World War, George Beurling.

The Canadian Air Force considered him too young for service and even when the British RAF accepted him, he was labelled a loner who was incapable of following orders.

However, when he was transferred to Malta, he got a chance to prove his mettle, so successfully in fact that he helped change the course of the war.

Between 1940 and 1942, the island found itself on the verge of surrender to fascist powers, but during the Battle of Malta, he shot down more enemy planes than any other allied pilot.