A Place to Call Home is an Australian drama created by Bevan Lee and starring Marta Dusseldorp, Noni Hazelhurst, and Brett Climo.
In 1953, in the aftermath of World War II, nurse Sarah Adams reluctantly returns to Australia to care for her mother. As she works on a ship in order to pay for her trip home, she becomes entangled with the wealthy Bligh family, which presents some unique opportunities, but also makes her privy to a secret.
This series contains examples of:
- The '50s: The series is set in the aftermath of World War Two and the social changes of the 1950's.
- Armored Closet Gay: James Bligh is married to a woman who loves him, but he is gay.
- The Beard: James married Olivia to conceal the fact that he is a gay man.
- Cool Aunt: Sarah's aunt Peg is one of the few members of her biological family that she's still close to after converting to Judaism.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The hospital where Sarah works has mandatory daily Christian prayers, which bothers Sarah because she's Jewish. Jack agrees to let her pray in Hebrew as long as she's discreet about it.
- Driven to Suicide:
- In the first episode, James contemplates killing himself, but is saved by Sarah, which causes her to become entangled with his family.
- At the end of the 5th season, Regina Bligh.
- Manipulative Bitch: Regina is extremely manipulative and barely conceals her blatantly malevolent, deceitful nature around others. Her only overriding goal is to win the love of George, and she is willing to do anything to obtain it. The fact that almost everyone except her beloved George is all too aware of her true character almost makes her The Starscream of the show.
- Naturalized Name: Inverted; Sarah was born Bridget Adams, but became Sarah Nordmann when she married her Jewish husband. Upon returning to Australia, she takes her maiden name back so that she could get work more easily.
- Professional Sex Ed: Attempted; In a flashback scene, we see George's father hired a prostitute for him and got as far as introducing him to her. We don't see exactly what happened, but it appears George refused to go through with it.
