ANZAC Girls: episode guide

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Courage

Episode 6
Ratings: 0.817 million viewers (8th)
Written by Felicity Packard
Directed by Ian Watson

Alice, Hilda and Elsie all find themselves mere kilometres from the front, the possibility of death edging ever closer, while the war seems like it will never end.

Following Olive's (Anna McGahan) departure, Alice (Georgia Flood) and Hilda (Antonia Prebble) begin work at No 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, Trois Arbres. One terrible night German planes drop bomb after bomb, almost killing Alice, who carries on through raid to protect her patients and move them to safety. For her outstanding courage that night she is awarded the Military Medal, and who should turn up to the award ceremony but Major Xavier Leopold (Charles Mayer), still as in love with Alice as ever. He again proposes, but Alice quietly declines — her heart still belongs to Harry.

Meanwhile, Elsie (Laura Brent) is working at the Red Cross Hospital in Amiens, also suffering air raids, and bending rules to travel across the devastated countryside to see her beloved Syd (Todd Lasance) at the frontline. Tension between this hitherto happy couple arises as Syd wants her to leave her work and come with him to London. But as the tide of the war surges, Elsie is finding her sense of purpose and duty expanding and she remains in Amiens.

Hilda and, particularly, Alice are both showing signs of posttraumatic stress. Alice's faith in God and Empire has been eroded, replaced instead by faith in her work and her friends. They are finally transferred back to No 1 AGH and reunited with Grace (Caroline Craig). And then Armistice and the staff of No 1 rejoice in the streets of Rouen.

We then follow postscripts over photographs of the real ANZAC Girls, outlining the rest of their lives — including Alice's marriage to the genial Dr Sydney Appleford. But we end with the image of Alice as an old woman, gazing at the photograph of her and Harry in Egypt — a poignant reminder of the irreplaceable losses of war.

Cast:

  • Georgia Flood as Sister Alice Ross King
  • Antonia Prebble as Sister Hilda Steele
  • Laura Brent as Sister Elsie Cook
  • Anna McGahan as Sister Olive Haynes
  • Caroline Craig as Matron Grace Wilson
  • Dustin Clare as Lieutenant Harry Moffitt
  • Todd Lasance as Major Sydney 'Syd' Cook
  • Charles Mayer as Major Xavier Leopold
  • Brandon McClelland as Private Norval 'Pat' Dooley
  • Honey Debelle as Sister Catherine 'Kat' McNaughton
  • Bonnie Soper as Sister Jessie Verey
  • Pip Edwards as Sister Lillian 'Fraser' Thompson
  • Nicholas Bell as General William Birdwood
  • Nathaniel Dean as Major Lionel Quick
  • Phillip Lowe as major Andrew Barton
  • Brad Williams as Major Archibald Springer
  • Jamie Irvine as Private John Wilson
  • Ben Hall as Private Hal Cooper
  • Jo Stone as Sister Earle
  • Roger Newcombe as Padre
  • Pete Michell as Army Cook
  • Bridget Walters as Madame Girard
  • Andrew Thomas as Private Gilmore
  • Philip Lineton as Old French Peasant
  • Jean-Claude De Toulouse as Medicin Chef
  • Eva Hamburg as Bluebird #1
  • Taylor Wiese as Lorry Driver
  • Jamie Black as Driver
  • Jonathan Bennett as Happy Aussie Soldier
  • Dave Halalilo as Happy Kiwi Soldier
  • Thomas Wiedenmann as German Prisoner
  • David Wiesner as German Prisoner
  • Kyle Hall as Red Cap
  • Sam Calleja as Red Cap
  • Dan Coletti as ACCS Orderly
  • Tim Gill as ACCS Orderly
  • Elliot Howard as Major Sydney Appleford
  • Julien Carlton as Boy Orderly
  • Jeff Moriarty as Boy Orderly
  • Tom Barratt as Soldier
  • Jordan Cortazzo as Soldier
  • Henry Jensen as Soldier
  • James Spargo as Soldier
  • Hjalmar Svenna as Soldier
  • Kyle Williams as Soldier
  • Nick Wilson as Soldier
  • Zoe Amanda Wilson as Alice Stunt Double
  • Chrissie Page as Old Alice