WHEN you think of the Second World War, fashion is not one of the first subjects that normally springs to mind.Īnd it wasn’t for writer and biographer Julie Summers either, until work on a project led her down the fashion road – and to the realisation of what a serious subject it could be. But wartime style turned out to be anything but frivolous as she explained to Gill Kay ahead of her talk at the Opera House Home Fires is available to watch on Amazon Prime.When the best-selling author of Jambusters, Julie Summers, was asked to write about fashion, she thought it was a superficial subject. The makers of Home Fires have admitted that ending the second season with a cliffhanger was perhaps a “mistake.” “We’re trying to show and reflect how difficult it was for a gay woman at that time in a small rural community to be open about her sexuality so a lot of people got married because it’s safer, people don’t question you.”īlock also suggested that the show may have continued even after the end of World War 2: “We hoped it would keep on coming back and we hoped we’d be able to follow the characters through the war and beyond.” “One of the interesting things from Twitter was that a lot of people seemed to think we were marrying that character off and therefore turning her straight for the convenience of ITV and that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do. He also discussed a major regret regarding a story line that has now been left awkwardly unfinished: “We’ve got a female character who’s gay and at the end of the second series she gets married and we intend to play that out properly and show how she’s struggling to be open about her sexuality while at the same time she’s being scrutinised within a close community. Home Fires writer Simon Block added: “One of the characters is very ill so there’s a limit to how long you can credibly continue with that character surviving.” That’s all I’m going to tell you because it might come back.”

She hinted: “We do lose a couple of much-loved characters who everyone’s grown to love and there is an illicit romance.

It was announced in May 2016 that Home Fires was not being renewed for another season, despite Season 2 ending on a massive cliffhanger with a fighter plane nosediving into the roof of butcher Bryn Brindsley’s house, with his wife in labour.ĭiscussing what would have happened next, Home Fires executive producer Francis Hopkinson told Radio Times: “Pat doesn’t manage to escape from Bob and her romance with Marek continues at a distance.” The first two seasons are available to watch for free on Amazon Prime. Home Fires explored the lives of Women’s Institute members on the Home Front during the Second World War in a rural Cheshire community. Inspired by Julie Summers’ book Jambusters, the British period drama series launched in 2015.

The creator of Home Fires has given some hints about the story lines that would have been explored if the show had continued.

Jambusters novel