Our Girl is a British military drama about female medics in the British Army, created and primarily written by Tony Grounds, starring first Lacey Turner and later Michelle Keegan as the protagonist.
The Pilot and Series One centre around Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner), a Combat Medical Technician fighting to prove herself in Afghanistan, despite the presence of ex-flame Dylan "Smurf" Smith (Iwan Rheon) and the doubts of her commanding officer, Captain James (Ben Aldridge), who criticises her compassion towards the locals.
Series Two introduces Georgie Lane (Michelle Keegan), a CMT who joins 2 Section for a humanitarian mission to Kenya and finds herself working with ex-fiancé Capt. Elvis Harte (Luke Pasqualino) as they combat a local terrorist organisation.
Series Three has Lane and 2 Section travelling to Nepal and Nigeria, before finding themselves under the command of brutal ex-SAS captain "Bones" McClyde (Olly Rix) for a final tour in Bangladesh to assist a refugee outreach project.
Series 4 sees new recruits join 2 Section, now led by 2nd Lieutenant Hurst (Will Attenborough), before returning to Afghanistan for a training-and-security mission, where they discover a local political candidate being targeted by Aatan Omar — the antagonist of Season 3, Part 1 — who is still at large.
Our Girl was first broadcast on March 24th 2013 on BBC One. On January 13th 2020, Keegan announced she would quit her role as Lane after the fourth (and current) series, although it is as of yet unknown whether the show will continue for a fifth series.
A word about the title: some sections of the British press describe soldiers as Our Boys, so a woman in the army would be Our Girl.
Our Girl provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: Maisie Richards in S3 drives almost everything due to top-marking on her military driving course.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Maisie Richards and Rab Kalil in Series 3; the bicker and tease each other constantly, but Rab is blatantly crushing on her and, over the course of the series, she begins to reciprocate just that bit more.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Downplayed with Capt. James and Sgt. King; the former is relaxed and playful, but maintains discipline, and the latter is gruffer, yes, but isn't averse to loosening up when appropriate.
- Child Soldier: 2 Section and the Nigerian Army capture one during Season 3, who turns out to be the son of a local jihadist leader.
- Combat Medic: Both protagonists are Combat Medical Technicians with the British Army.
- Late Season 3 introduces a rookie CMT in the form of Jason "Ruby" Curry.
- And another in Season 4, Mimi Saunders.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: The Corporals in "Pilot" are very harsh and demeaning, although that's to be expected during military basic training.
- Bones McClyde veers into this during his brief stint as 2 Section's captain.
- Friendly Sniper: "Spanner" appears to be Special Forces' resident marksman, but he's also incredibly cheery and plays the guitar whilst 2 Section and SF are on R&R together.
- Meaningful Name: During Series 1, 2 Section are occasionally referred to as the "Under 5's" due to their youth.
- 2 Section's Pvt. Wiggerty is nicknamed "Brains" due to, well, being smart.
- Military Maverick: Maisie Richards in Season 3 starts off like this, before being sharpened up by Georgie's guidance.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Most of 2 Sections soldiers have bizarre and occasionally-nondescript nicknames, with their real names not even listed in the credits.
- Aside from Elvis, Special Forces' members are only referred to by their nicknames, such as "Spanner" and "Peanut".
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Smurf is noticeably suspicious of the Afghan National Army soldiers 2 Section work with during Series 1, and even calls one a "ten-dollar Taliban" within earshot of the soldier in question.
- Although he's a minor character, Molly's father in the pilot rants about how white people are being forced out of East London to make room for minorities, although these attitudes apparently fade away during Series 1.
- Working with the Ex:
- Upon being attached to 2 Section, Molly discovers a fellow soldier is a former one-night stand of hers, who is eager to rekindle the relationship.
- During Series 2 and half of Series 3, Georgie finds herself consistently working with her ex-fiancé, Capt. Elvis Harte of Special Forces.
- Elvis and 2 Section recruit Maisie had a brief fling during an offscreen decompression, but it's barely relevant apart from a brief joke about Elvis' massive... ego.
