Network: Reelz
Episodes: 18 (hour) + two-hour movie
Seasons: Two
TV show dates: September 11, 2012 — May 26, 2014
Series status: Cancelled
Performers include: Meg Tilly, Jodi Balfour, Charlotte Hegele, Ali Liebert, Antonio Cupo, Sebastian Pigott, Peter Outerbridge, Anastasia Phillips, Jim Codrington, and Lisa Norton.
TV show description:
Set in 1940s Toronto, this TV series explores the lives of various women who find themselves thrust into new worlds. They work in munitions factories, building the arms that keep their overseas husbands, lovers, brothers, and sons alive and fighting.
While they’re building bombs, the women also find themselves flourishing with newfound freedom, discovering strengths they never before imagined. At the same time they’re often woefully under-equipped for the new challenges they face. Amid propaganda and sexual harassment, crossing social and cultural boundaries, these remarkable women form a unique sisterhood.
Lorna Corbett (Meg Tilly) met her husband Bob (Peter Outerbridge) at age 18 before he shipped out to the Great War, and married after their affair left her pregnant. Bob returned a broken man, shell-shocked and paralyzed, and their dream of a happy life vanished. Lorna quietly relishes her new job as it’s a chance to escape an oppressive home and is secretly jealous of the other ladies’ happiness. She’s determined not to let them make the same mistakes she did. Lorna is especially resentful Gladys and seeks to break the spirited girl, even though she recognizes her own long-lost exuberance.
Gladys Witham (Jodi Balfour) is a wild child and the only daughter in a wealthy Rosedale family. Gladys’s privileged life has made her fearless with an appetite for life and she’s always gotten what she wanted. Now, what she wants is changing and its far less superficial. Does this leave room for James Dunn, her fiance?
New to Toronto, Kate Andrews (Charlotte Hegele) is eager to please and gifted at lifting spirits thanks to a staggeringly talented singing voice. Beneath her smile is a sheltered, insecure girl who’s on the run from her abusive street-preaching father. Cobbling together a new identity, Kate appears to have evaded punishment and her past, for now.
Betty McRae (Ali Liebert) is a recent arrival from rural Saskatchewan. An early arrival to Victory Munitions, Betty quickly rose through the ranks to be a well-regarded worker who doubles as Blue Shift’s on-floor trainer of the new workers. She fled her troubling past to live in a place with fewer men to mistrust. Betty has a hard attitude but for some reason, this doesn’t seem to apply to her interactions with Kate.
Blue Shift’s materials controller, Marco Moretti (Antonio Cupo), is responsible for the raw materials coming into the factory, as well as the export of every finished bomb. He gained his experience from his family’s fireworks factory, and now supports his mother, sister and nieces as the sole breadwinner. His father has been locked away in an internment camp alongside hundreds of other Italian immigrants. Though Marco considers himself a Canadian, he knows others see him as a potential enemy and is unable to enlist.
James Dunn (Sebastian Pigott) is smart, attractive, wealthy, and poised to take the world by storm. He’s a decent man whose refinement haven’t resulted in snobbery. Still, having been largely sheltered from the world’s harsh truths, he’s woefully innocent about matters of the heart. While he’s drawn to Gladys, her exuberance often threatens to overwhelm him. He was an American before Pearl Harbor and still doesn’t feel that the war is truly his to fight.
Vera Burr (Anastasia Phillips) is a Blue Shift worker and was disfigured in an accident at the factory and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. African-American Leon (Jim Codrington) works in the warehouse at Victory Munitions. A jazz musician and singer, he saves Kate from an attempted assault. Edith McAllum (Lisa Norton) is a floor worker at Victory, is close friends with Lorna, and befriends Bob while dealing with the aftermath of her husband’s death.
Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy (series ending movie)
It is the Spring of 1943 and the Battle for the Atlantic rages as an Axis victory seems inevitable. The one hope the Allies have – production of newly developed sonar equipment – is moved to Victory Munitions when the British factories are bombed. Under the increased pressure, the women of Vic Mu — Gladys, Lorna, Kate, Betty and Vera — band together in a tight bond of support and friendship. Then, in the darkest hour of the war, a new and disturbing menace appears – a saboteur among the factory workers.
First aired: May 26, 2014.
What do you think? Do you like the Bomb Girls TV series? Do you think it should have been cancelled or renewed for a third season?
I absolutely love this show…Please bring it back.
Bringing back nostalgia and highlighting the efforts of non-combatants in harsh times; good series which most of us appear to enjoy. Unfortunately the decisions regarding whether this series is continued probably lies with a panel of individuals who do not appreciate it…. lets hope not, for once.
My husband and I both loved this show. He keeps talking about it and I know I’m hooked!
This show deserves to have another season, which is a lot more than I can say for half of the other crud on TV!
Love this show. I hope they keep renewing it.
Excellent period show. Great cast and characters verey nostalgic.
definitely renewed.
I love this series. I was born in 1941. I remember some of life at that time as a youngster living in a coastal state. Keep the series going. I am glued to it. I got upset when I thought it had been cancelled. My Dad was a Marine in Guam.
[…] has announced that they have renewed Bomb Girls, their World War II era TV series, for a second season. The new episodes will debut in the first […]
Loce this show great actors and worth my time watching please keep it going
This show is too intelligent, it must be cancelled or we will all begin to THINK instead of react…
seriously, I had no intention of getting involved in this series/drama. I thought it was going to be just for a female audiance However, I got easily involved in with the great story line and the interesting characters. The actress Meg Tilly is really great and intense and well developed with multiple levels of emotions. The show really does capture what it was like to be a Woman and an Afro American and an minority back then in WWII and all that these classes of people had to face in our pre Liberated American culture of the time. The show… Read more »
Love this show I hope it gets renewed ….
Love this show! Please don’t cancel the show!
REELZ had marathon I Dvd ed and stayed up all night watching…great..great show! I am a big fan of dated shows! So much better than reality Tv!
LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!! I was sorry to see it end, but hopefully there will be another season … And another ….. And another….. PLEASE?!!!!