‘New war, same old story’: Gender and War-related Trauma in ITV’s Home Fires

Abstract

Airing during the centenary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the Blitz, Home Fires (ITV, 2015–16) deals with both world wars by linking them through war-related trauma that not only coloured wartime experiences but also shaped generational experiences in the decades following both conflicts. Set in the Second World War and focusing on the women of the Great Paxford Women’s Institute in rural Cheshire, the series complicates simplified narratives of Britons’ experiences in the world wars that represent the first as futile and the second as triumphalist and definitive. Rather than confining trauma to surviving combat conditions, Home Fires explores second-generation trauma, patriotic marriages versus non-heteronormative identities as a threat to the nation, and spousal abuse and adultery as consequences of war trauma. Ultimately, Home Fires is an emotionally wrought fictionalised narrative of the Second World War that encourages audiences to think critically about the world wars, their commemoration and the gendered valuation of trauma.