Harriet’s Army is a new drama on CBBC set during World War One.

The three-part series follows a group of children in a small English town, as they hold the Home Front and discover the true enemy within.

Visitors to BBC Learning’s World War One At Home Tour this summer can take part in Harriet’s Spy Quest. Children visiting events in Bristol, Rhyl, Portrush and Nottingham can have a go at code-breaking and find out about espionage with an outdoor quest.

Watch the trailer…

 

Episode 1

Tuesday 5 August 2014, 9am

It’s 1914 and Harriet is a girl who doesn’t quite fit in. When she’s asked to leave the Girl Guides for fighting, it turns out to be bad timing. War breaks out and the efforts of Scouts and Guides are volunteered in support of the war effort; Harriet feels side-lined. A local family, the Browns, are revealed to have German connections, but after Thomas Brown heroically saves Harriet’s younger brother on the railway track, Harriet and Thomas become firm friends.

Harriet decides to form her own ‘army’ of misfit children, mounting patrols and searching for German spies. It’s all a bit of a joke at first, and their first ‘catch’ turns out to be the new Welsh postman. Harriet joins her friend Violet to wave Violet’s brother Stephen off as he leaves for war, alongside his mates. The campaign against the Browns grows nasty: Mrs Brown loses her job, and Thomas’s younger brother Lewis is attacked in the street. Harriet tells Thomas that she has a plan to help them.

 

Episode 2

Wednesday 6 August 2014, 9am

Harriet desperately tries to convince Edward that the Browns are not the enemy.

Their father arrives and after a tense moment of hesitation, Edward keeps Harriet’s secret. Time passes, and the Browns are still in hiding; Harriet visits regularly with food, obtained by her army of misfit children. She’s intrigued when Lewis Brown points out lights flashing in the night – could it be spies?

A stores ship is departing and Violet sends a parcel to France for her soldier brother, Stephen. But Harriet and her family awake to bad news: the ship has been sunk and all lives lost.

 

Episode 3

Thursday 7 August 2014, 9am

Harriet and her army lie in wait for their spy.

After a daring chase they catch up with him, only to discover a shell-shocked Stephen, who has been camping out in the woods. Falteringly he describes some of the trauma of the front line; of being a survivor when his friends all died before Harriet persuades him to go home to his family.

Back at Harriet’s house, Edward has found Lewis Brown’s list of the flashing lights. Some of the dates are marked and match the dates when ships were sunk. To Edward it looks as if the Browns are complicit and he’s determined to report it to the police…

 

Are you looking forward to Harriet’s Army? Let us know below…