LOGLINE:
When they are prevented from serving their country in World War One, a group of rebel Scottish women doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers create their own damn hospital. Heading to the Serbian Front, they battle war injuries and terrible epidemics, face down a cruel enemy and defy all expectations. Thet women save lives and change opinions — until the collapse of the Serbian Front forces each woman to make a grim and unenviable choice.
THE PRODUCTION
Creative Producer: Martin Cuff
Series Writer: Annie Griffin
Producers: Jenny Williams, Annie Griffin – Pirate Productions, Edinburgh
Format: TV Series
Genre: historical drama, action and adventure, feminist, war romance, women in war
Tone: A high-octane, high-energy, medicine/hospital drama on the frontline of a chaotic war. It’s infused with a raw, punk-fuelled feminist soundtrack and roaring rebellious energy. Listen to the wishlist theme song: Bikini Kill’s Rebel Girl. Volume up: here
Filming Locations: Republic of Serbia (30% state film incentive) @ Panchevo Studios, Belgrade
Partners: LOI – Telekom Srbija
SEASON ONE (1914-15)
When she volunteers for the Army Medical Corp at the start of World War 1, Dr. Elsie Inglis is contemptuously dismissed. Unpeturbed, she uses her Suffragette connections to raise the equivalent of £53 million and creates a 1000 strong, female-only medical unit of surgeons, doctors, nurses, orderlies and ambulance drivers – the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. At a time when these women do not even have the right to vote, they head to the Serbian Front, where the worst typhus epidemic in history is decimating soldier and civilian, defender and attacker alike. In the face of unbelievable challenges, the women save lives and change opinions — until the collapse of the Serbian Front forces each woman to make a grim and unenviable choice.
SEASON TWO (1916-17)
The women have made their individual decisions and the group has now split. Some have joined the Serbian government, the army and 400000 civilians in a desperate flight over the mountains to Albania. Some have stayed with the sick, where they are interrogated and expelled. On their return to British soil, they immediately begin fundraising for their return to the frontlines. For those fleeing over the Dinaric Alps, the danger has only just begun; travelling in mid-winter, without food or sufficient clothing, and under continual attack by bandits, the journey is a nightmare – Serbia’s Albanian Golgotha. Only 120,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians – including some, but not all – of our heroines will reach the Adriatic coast and safety in Corfu.
SEASON THREE (1918)
The two teams of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals reunite on the Salonika (Thessaloniki) front, supported by a new influx of tremendous ANZAC women medical personnel. Bringing vital medical support to both military and civilian populations in Macedonia, they support the war effort as it breaks through the German lines and heads on to liberate Belgrade.
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