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Endurance

Episode 3
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Ratings: 758,000 viewers (8th)
Written by Felicity Packard & Niki Aken
Directed by Ken Cameron

In Egypt, Alice and Elsie are confronted by the heart-wrenching reality of love during wartime, which reaches a breaking point for Elsie when she is forced to choose between her husband, Syd and her role abroad in the AANS. Whilst enduring the horrific conditions on Lemnos, Olive faces her greatest test of faith and resolve.

As the Gallipoli campaign drags on into autumn, nursing on the hospital ship for Hilda (Antonia Prebble) becomes more about illness than injury. One of the men invalided back to Cairo suffering severe typhoid is Harry (Dustin Clare). It's a huge relief for Alice (Georgia Flood) to see him away from danger but crushing to see him so ill. While Alice desperately wants Harry to articulate his feelings, he seems strangely reticent, leading Alice to become jealous of his nurse, Sister Martin (Susie Collins). Xavier (Charles Mayer) senses that Alice is frustrated and swoops, calmly putting his case to her: marry me and there will be no more uncertainty; I will take care of you. Alice reserves her decision — she has to confront Harry to square things between them. With all uncertainty at last put aside, Harry declares that he is in love with her and at Christmas they kiss under mistletoe.

On Lemnos, Olive (Anna McGahan) is doing it tougher than ever. En route to Salonika, the troop ship the New Zealand hospital is travelling on, (including her Kiwi friends, Poppy (Brooke Williams) and Lorna (Robyn Patterson), is struck by a torpedo from a German submarine. Ten nurses die in the tragedy, Lorna included. Then winter hits, and with it from Gallipoli come heart-breaking cases of trench foot. The waste and pointlessness of the campaign — and her own misery — are almost more than even chirpy Olive can bear. But Matron Grace (Caroline Craig) helps her realise she's allowed to admit that it's hard. And Grace herself finally gets some acknowledgement for making order out of chaos, albeit from the unlikeliest place.

With the withdrawal from Gallipoli, Olive and Grace return to Cairo from Lemnos, as does Hilda from the hospital ship — our ANZAC girls are re-united. Whilst Syd (Todd Lasance) has improved markedly, Elsie (Laura Brent) realises that his best chance of full recovery is to be transferred to a convalescent hospital in England. She succeeds in wangling a transfer for him and from there he is promptly sent home to Australia to recuperate. But this is where Elsie's run of good luck ends. She immediately volunteers for transport duty to Australia to be with her husband, but is informed that when she arrives home she will be dismissed from the Australian Army Nursing Service because she is married. It seems Elsie's war is over.

Cast:

  • Georgia Flood as Sister Alice Ross King
  • Antonia Prebble as Sister Hilda Steele
  • Laura Brent as Sister Elsie Cook
  • Anna McGahan as Sister Olive Haynes
  • Caroline Craig as Matron Grace Wilson
  • John Waters as Colonel Thomas Fiaschi
  • Dustin Clare as Lieutenant Harry Moffitt
  • Todd Lasance as Major Sydney 'Syd' Cook
  • Charles Mayer as Major Xavier Leopold
  • Joseph Ber as Major Sherwin
  • Brandon McClelland as Private Norval 'Pat' Dooley
  • Rhondda Findleton as Matron Nellie Gould
  • Honey Debelle as Sister Catherine 'Kat' McNaughton
  • Sara West as Sister Clarice Daley
  • Charlotte Hazzard as Sister Florence Tilley
  • Susie Collins as Sister Martin
  • Brooke Williams as Sister Edith 'Poppy' Popplewell
  • Robyn Paterson as Sister Lorna Rattray
  • Madeleine Jevic as Sister Meg Hayes
  • Lisa Waite as Sister Watson
  • Celine O'Leary as Matron in Chief
  • Bronwyn James as QAIMNS Nurse
  • James Fraser as Private Jimmy Stubbs
  • Staten Evans as Sergeant Ernest Lawrence
  • Mark Saturno as Captain Perrin
  • Brad Williams as Major Archibald Springer
  • Leon Ford as Major John Prior
  • Craig Behenna as Major Woolf
  • Travis Jeffery as Corporal Keogh
  • Aaron Cartwright as Major Wilcox
  • Lochlin Maybury as Batman
  • Scott Perry as Private Griggs
  • Cameron Robertson as Private Braithwaite
  • Alexander Kleut as Private Rodgers
  • Nicholas Ely as Staff Sergeant
  • John Maurice as Secretary
  • Jeff Lang as Quartermaster
  • Lane Hinchcliffe as Cook
  • Rod Bolton as Army Photographer
  • William Cox as Soldier
  • Ronald Densley as Soldier
  • Henry Golding as Soldier
  • Joshua Kapitza as Soldier
  • Craig Mcardle as Soldier
  • Jake Nicola as Soldier
  • Jake Phillips as Soldier
  • Graham Self as Soldier
  • Nigel Tripoldi as Soldier
  • Esther Marshall as Nurse