My Mother & Other Strangers

This BBC miniseries, set in a rural Irish town during World War II, is another homefront drama, this time viewed through the memories of an adolescent boy. Francis Coyne (Michael Nevin) is the son of London born and bred Rose (Hattie Morahan), who is treated like an outsider by the locals because of her education and manner of speaking. His father Michael (Owen McDonnell) runs the local tavern that his father ran before him, and Francis is the younger brother of teenager Emma (Eileen O'Higgins), who is just getting interested in boys. Tensions are high thanks to an American Air Force base located nearby—the locals are hostile to the Yanks who come to the tavern and date the girls. Rose, meanwhile, becomes attracted to the American liaison officer (Aaron Staton). This show presents the homefront experience from a provincial viewpoint, where the war is treated as an imposition on everyday life—and is little more than headlines or radio news reports to most of them. Inspired by the experiences of creator Barry Devlin, the stories involve the black market, clashes between local practices and national law, and collisions between the Irish and the Americans, but otherwise is not too different from another current BBC series, Home Fires, albeit with a slightly different setting. Compiling all five episodes from 2016 of this show that aired stateside on Masterpiece, extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette. Fans of British period dramas will likely enjoy. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)