New pictures have been revealed of Call the Midwife star Jessica Raine in new military drama The Last Post, which will launch as an Amazon Original in the U.S. later this year.
The six-part period series tells the story of a British army unit fighting in the city of Aden, in what is now Yemen, in 1965. It also looks at how life was for the soldiers’ wives and children, and Jessica plays Alison Laithwaite, a woman described as “ahead of her time,” who feels cooped up just as the Swinging Sixties are getting underway back home.
The series is based on the childhood memories of BAFTA award-winning writer Peter Moffat (no relation to Doctor Who‘s Steven Moffat), who created the U.K.’s Criminal Justice and is now an EP on its U.S. version, HBO’s Emmy award-winning The Night Of starring Riz Ahmed.
Alison is based in part on his mother, who was forced to follow his father to the Middle East when he became an officer in the Royal Military Police there.
In the series her husband Ed is played by The History Boys‘ Stephen Campbell Moore, seen here in another photo released yesterday (September 26):
In a statement released last year when the series was first commissioned by the BBC, Peter Moffat explained:
“Young married couples in the heart of the Sixties living in extremely close proximity in a very alien and dangerous environment has always struck me as ripe territory for drama. Men full of vim, vigor and a desire to be heroes in a situation where that isn’t always possible, alongside young women who are starting to feel the emancipation of the Sixties and a sense of new freedoms but who are living in a constrained setting where their role is supposed to be merely supportive.”
He added, “My mum remembers standing on the balcony of our flat in her first week in Aden and seeing a hand grenade thrown killing a five-year-old boy and my dad rushing out to try and do something… Throw in rock-n-roll and tumultuous love stories alongside the unexplored territory of this period in our history and you have a pretty heady mix.”
We’ll say. Look out for The Last Post on Amazon later this year.
Will you be watching?