The drama follows a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. The isolated village couldn’t feel further away from the impending bloodshed and battlefields and yet it is not immune from the effects of war. As the conflict takes hold, and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world.
By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever.
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Clips from Series One
Frances Barden - Samantha Bond
Frances may be at the heart and soul of the Women's Institute and a great woman to have in your corner, but her totalitarian streak hasn't exactly endeared her to the Committee in the past. She'll have to accept that "misguided" will of the majority if she wants to be a part of the bigger picture.
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Joyce Cameron - Frances Annis
First-class snob Joyce has a finger in every pie in the village, with spots on almost every committee board to her name. There's more to this rather lonely women than meets the eye, though, and when war comes to the village her ability to focus and drive a project forward might just prove rather important.
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Pat Simms - Claire Rushbrook
Pat is always willing to step in when others aren't pulling their weight or there's nobody else to do the job and that confidence makes her very popular with the women of the WI. Her home life, however, isn't quite so positive: her journalist husband Bob is a frustrated man and doesn't hesitate to take his anger out on his wife.
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Sarah Collingbourne - Ruth Gemmell
Frances's younger sister Sarah spends most of her time smoothing over the waters churned by her sibling and is immensely liked and respected as a result. She's utterly devoted to her war hero husband, Reverend Adam Collingborne, but this vicar's wife isn't quite as strong a believer and struggles with her role in the community.
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Clare Hillman - Daisy Badger
Expert flirt Spencer is the local postman and is utterly floored when he meets Joyce's housemaid, Claire. She's an active member of the WI, having found herself thrust into the working world following the death of her last remaining relative. The course of true love never did run smooth though, and as the war unearths some rather interesting secrets the pair are truly put to the test.
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Alison Scotlock - Fenella Woolgar
Widow Alison has been alone since her husband George died during The Great War in 1916 but her beloved dog Boris has kept her company. The avid reader is happy in her solitude so when new schoolteacher Teresa moves in (after the school cottage is requisitioned for use by the military) there's a big adjustment to be made.
The pair soon find that they can be of great help to each other though, and at the WI they really come into their own.
The pair soon find that they can be of great help to each other though, and at the WI they really come into their own.
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Doctor Will Campbell - Ed Stoppard
The villagers of Great Paxford have an excellent GOP in Dr Will, who knows them all too well. After witnessing the horrors of war during WWI he's well respected in the community, and dearly loved by his wife and daughters. Can the pragmatic man maintain his composure when he gets some devastating news?
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Erica Campbell - Frances Grey
Doctor's wife Erica runs the village surgery and is fiercely protective of her husband and daughters. She married in a whirlwind during the First World War and doesn't want her girls to suffer the same fate.
Erica’s deep-rooted sense of right and wrong led her into trouble in series one, when she tried to intervene on Pat’s behalf. As series two opens, Erica is wiser and more cautious in her approach, though she will battle to the end to support her family and friends, including Will’s worsening cancer and Laura’s scandalous behaviour.
Erica’s deep-rooted sense of right and wrong led her into trouble in series one, when she tried to intervene on Pat’s behalf. As series two opens, Erica is wiser and more cautious in her approach, though she will battle to the end to support her family and friends, including Will’s worsening cancer and Laura’s scandalous behaviour.
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Kate Campbell - Rachel Hurd-Wood
Kate wears the wedding dress of her mother and is the first of the two daughters to marry. She is kinder than her sister and cares more for love and happiness of others. When her new husband Jack dies suddenly on a training course, crashing his plane into the ground, Kate is devastated and goes into mourning.
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Steph Farrow- Clare Calbraith
Stanley Farrow (Chris Coghill) has been a farmer all his life, having been too young to enlist in the First World War. Now, as conflict rumbles on the front, he feels the pull of the battlefields. While he struggles with his decision wife Steph (Claire Calbraith) – who has always been a powerful force on the farm – begins to discover female friendships at the WI, where she can be someone other than the fierce farmer's wife and a mother to Little Stan (Brian Fletcher).
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Miriam Brindsley - Claire Price
Miriam married Butcher Bryn Brindsley when they were both 19 and her asthmatic son David was the apple of her eye before he headed off to war in series one. In series two he returned and she was expected another baby.
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