Life on the home front is given a distinctly rosy glow in this naffly nostalgic adaptation of Angela Huth's novel. Anna Friel's randy northerner, Rachel Weisz's sheltered blue-stocking and Catherine McCormack's bourgeois prude are surely the most stereotypical volunteers in the history of the Women's Land Army. Consequently, from the moment these urban interlopers arrive at Tom Georgeson's Dorset farm, there isn't a single scene that ends unexpectedly. The performances are earnest and the scenery is beautiful, but as the clichés clunk into place with deadening predictability there's no sense of either dramatic or social conflict, let alone insight into the Land Girls' contribution to the war effort.

During World War II, the organisation "The Women's Land Army" recruited women to work on British farms while the men were off to war. Three such "land girls" of different social backgrounds - quiet Stella, young hairdresser Prue, and Cambridge graduate Ag - become best friends in spite of their different backgrounds.