Ever wondered how the Women's Institute came to be associated with jam? Nor did we, but it's apparently because a rebel group of nice women in Great Paxford stood up to their snooty leader and formed a breakaway branch, and their first act of defiance (jam being rather common) and towards the soon-to-be-declared war effort, was denuding all the local blackberry bushes of fruit and making a squillion pots of sweet sandwich filling. This is based on a non-fiction book, 'Jambusters', and you can see the boxes ticked by commissioning editors here: WWII for the nostalgia, strong roles for women etc.
Watching this a few days after 'Anzac Girls', it's striking how by-numbers they both are: haughty toff, nice toff, man-hungry girl and even the One with a Secret turn up again here, though this time it's a man, Ed Stoppard, who as the local doctor, Will Campbell, is set to abandon his patients' hernias and whooping coughs and head for the rugged plains of war. Alas for him, his nasty smoking habit has given him lung cancer, so he won't be going anywhere. Tsk tsk. Then there's redoubtable Pat Simms (Claire Rushbrook), abused by her writer husband Bob (Mark Bazeley) and determined to keep it a secret, she poisons his pilchards. Alas for her, she hasn't put enough in....
It's all very Sunday night - as opposed to 'The C Word', broadcast on BBC1 at the same time - and has a strong cast that includes Francesca Annis, Samantha Bond, Ruth Gemmell, Frances Grey, Fenella Woolgar and Anthony Calf. There may be trouble ahead, as the song goes, but while there's the WI, the women of Great Paxford won't find WWII too unbearable, and nor will viewers wanting to unwind on a Sunday evening.
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