Season 4 of Our Girl to be more “emotionally led” with focus on PTSD
The upcoming fourth series will be the last with Michelle Keegan in the lead role
Michelle Keegan has teased that the upcoming fourth run of Our Girl will be more "emotionally led" than previous series, with a particular focus on PTSD.
Keegan, who is stepping aside at the end of the series, told RadioTimes.com and other media that her character Georgie Lane had "such a good storyline" in her final series.
"The arc that she goes on and the journey is a really really good one," she said. "I think it's more emotionally led this one.
"Because last time when Elvis (Georgie's ex-fiancee) died she sort of threw herself back into work straight away and you saw her in Belize straight away."
Keegan explained that the first episode sees Georgie in the UK training a new character called Mimi (Amy-Leigh Hickman), before she decides to return to Afghanistan.
"I think part of that reason for her to go is for her to get closure because that's where Elvis got killed," she said.
"And you'll see again in this series that she hasn't actually dealt with Elvis' death, she's still grieving and has some form of PTSD."
And she added that working on Our Girl over the years had given her an opportunity to learn more about PTSD - and especially how it affects female army medics.
"Before I filmed not the first series but the second series, I had a meeting with a lot of the female medics who have suffered with PTSD in the past," she explained.
"They were telling me their personal stories, and all they wanted to do was get back into the military, they didn't want any time off, they wanted to be back with their people.
"You think they'd want time at home and stuff but they don't want to they wanted to be back in the military.
"And I think that's what Georgie did, I think that's why we went with that storyline where she threw herself back into work, like she didn't say that she got PTSD.
"I'm glad we're sort of delved into that this time, I'm glad we're exploring it this season, the PTSD side."
Meanwhile the fourth series will also see several new characters enter the fray, with Amy-Leigh Hickman's Mimi and Nico Mirallegro's Prof among the most high-profile additions to the cast.
And Keegan reckons that any number of these new characters will firmly establish themselves as fan favourites.
"I think the audience are really going to take to these characters because they're so different," she said.
"You put the 2 section together and they're all likeable in their own ways, but they're completely different.
"And I think the audience is just going to love them, honestly, I think they're just going to take to them really well."
Our Girl series 4 begins on Tuesday 24th March at 9pm on BBC OneMichelle Keegan has teased that the upcoming fourth run of Our Girl will be more "emotionally led" than previous series, with a particular focus on PTSD.
Keegan, who is stepping aside at the end of the series, told RadioTimes.com and other media that her character Georgie Lane had "such a good storyline" in her final series.
"The arc that she goes on and the journey is a really really good one," she said. "I think it's more emotionally led this one.
"Because last time when Elvis (Georgie's ex-fiancee) died she sort of threw herself back into work straight away and you saw her in Belize straight away."
Keegan explained that the first episode sees Georgie in the UK training a new character called Mimi (Amy-Leigh Hickman), before she decides to return to Afghanistan.
"I think part of that reason for her to go is for her to get closure because that's where Elvis got killed," she said.
"And you'll see again in this series that she hasn't actually dealt with Elvis' death, she's still grieving and has some form of PTSD."
And she added that working on Our Girl over the years had given her an opportunity to learn more about PTSD - and especially how it affects female army medics.
"Before I filmed not the first series but the second series, I had a meeting with a lot of the female medics who have suffered with PTSD in the past," she explained.
"They were telling me their personal stories, and all they wanted to do was get back into the military, they didn't want any time off, they wanted to be back with their people.
"You think they'd want time at home and stuff but they don't want to they wanted to be back in the military.
"And I think that's what Georgie did, I think that's why we went with that storyline where she threw herself back into work, like she didn't say that she got PTSD.
"I'm glad we're sort of delved into that this time, I'm glad we're exploring it this season, the PTSD side."
Meanwhile the fourth series will also see several new characters enter the fray, with Amy-Leigh Hickman's Mimi and Nico Mirallegro's Prof among the most high-profile additions to the cast.
And Keegan reckons that any number of these new characters will firmly establish themselves as fan favourites.
"I think the audience are really going to take to these characters because they're so different," she said.
"You put the 2 section together and they're all likeable in their own ways, but they're completely different.
"And I think the audience is just going to love them, honestly, I think they're just going to take to them really well."
Our Girl series 4 begins on Tuesday 24th March at 9pm on BBC One
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
