Its feature-length television pilot first broadcast on BBC One on 24 March 2013 and initially starred Lacey Turner as Molly Dawes, a young working-class woman, who joins the British Army after deciding her life is going down the drain.

Following the feature-length pilot episode, a continuation show was commissioned, with Turner reprising her role for the first series, which commenced broadcast on 21 September 2014.

Across its run, Our Girl received mixed reception, with reviews leaning more positively for the show's pilot and first two series, and more negatively for its third and fourth.

While its production, performances, and action sequences were generally praised, critics agreed that the show glamourised military life and suffered a confused tone as the series progressed.

[3] Grounds said that the concept was in his mind when he visited an army base and was told of a young woman who "was angry as a feral cat" at the start of her basic training, only to become a strong and competent combat medic who served in Afghanistan.

[4] For the new series, Grounds aimed to capture the experiences of foot soldiers in Afghanistan, commenting that it allowed opportunities to explore the issues faced by them.

[4] BBC One controller Charlotte Moore teased the upcoming series would be "a rite-of-passage story about a young soldier" and would "follow the extreme life-changing experiences [Molly] is forced to face both on tour and when she returns back home".

[11] Grounds based the new series in Kenya as he believed its conflict with Somalia would be "an incredible setting for drama", and the characters would have never "faced anything like the situation they are confronted with".

[16] Before choosing Nepal as the first part of series' setting, he researched areas that were often struck with natural disasters and helped by the British Army.

[20] Grounds selected Bangladesh as the setting of the final part of the series after hearing stories about Rohingya Muslims crossing the border from Myanmar and living in refugee camps, and found drug lords to be an intimidating enemy.

[21] Grounds detailed that he spent a "long time listening to soldiers and people" from around the countries to achieve accuracy and authenticity of the struggles in the areas.

[24] Despite being set in Afghanistan, the first series was filmed over a 49-day period in a wildlife reserve called the Serra Della Camp in the Bonte Bok mountain range in South Africa.

To account for the buildings, specialist teams were brought in to attach steel hawsers to act as guy ropes to prevent serious damage.

[25] Horn admitted that despite the constant rebuilding of sets, the show's construction team, who were from South Africa, had "a great 'can do' attitude" due to being used to the climate.

[1] After the pilot's success spawned the followup series, Turner reprised her role as Molly, describing her as "feisty", "disobedient", and "passionate", but that her character had become "more grown up".

[43] Turner was accompanied by two new main characters, Captain James and Dylan 'Smurf' Smith, played by Ben Aldridge and Iwan Rheon, respectively, who would be involved in a love triangle with Molly.

[46] After Turner left the show to return to her role as Stacey Slater on EastEnders,[47] it was announced that Michelle Keegan had been cast as Georgie Lane, a new protagonist for the series.

[51] Other cast members joining in series 2 included Royce Pierreson as Dr Jamie Cole, Rolan Bell as Sergeant King, Sean Sagar as Monk and Anthony Oseyemi as the Kenyan forces' Captain Osman.

[59] Sarah Crompton of The Telegraph gave the episode 3/5 stars, calling it "a compelling 90 minutes", but criticising the depiction of the army as being more suited to "a glossy advertising campaign" than a drama, adding that the pilot "glamorised both its methods and its personnel".

[62] Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent commented that, despite the plot being "familiar": "As recruitment films go, it was much better written and acted than the usual output" and that it "was so unequivocally approving of the benefits of joining up that it seemed entirely possible that viewers at a loose end might consider giving Army life a go".

Dale Cowan of Cultbox awarded the series 5 stars, explaining "Director Anthony Philipson's visually stimulating direction continues to impress as does the writing from creator Tony Grounds, who has produced something truly wonderful".

[64] Julian White of The Least Picture Show gave the first series a 7/10, considering Turner's performance as a positive as the actress "does a magnificent job of making her seem warm-hearted and funny".

He concluded: "For all its occasional flaws and excesses, Our Girl paints a portrait of men and women in uniform who haven't allowed a long and bloody conflict to dampen one iota of their humanity".

[66] Henry Tucker of Blueprint Review gave the series 4/5 stars, concluding that "if you like your military viewing with lots of bangs and gunfights then give this a very wide berth.

[68] Michael Hogan of The Telegraph gave the premiere a mixed review, 3/5 stars, praising the drama, "adrenalin-pumping action", "tantalising cliffhanger", and Keegan's "tough-but-vulnerable" performance, but criticised the dialogue, mainly the "clichéd sexist 'banter'", and underwritten characters.

[69] Julia Raeside was also critical of the script, as it intailed "unpleasant sexist banter", but praised how "the romance manages to coexist with the military drama while still keeping its boots on the ground".

[71] Cowan praised the second episode, commenting: "The musical score is subtle yet cinematic and aids the sparkling direction from Jan Matthys well.

[75] Ed Power of The Telegraph awarded the first episode of series 3 3/5 stars, praising Keegan's portrayal but criticising the new characters and 2-Section as they "spent most of the time larking, bantering and mucking about, like a heavily-armed stag party".

[76] Thomas Ling of Radio Times echoed the criticisms, particularly citing positive Twitter responses to Georgie's return and negative reactions to the new character Maisie Richards.

[82] The third series received rampant viewer criticsm for a lack of Elvis,[83] the ending of Captain James and Molly's marriage,[84][85] as well as his eventual relationship with Georgie,[86][87] several medical inaccuracies shown,[88][89] and Bones's premature death.