The series follows the show's new protagonist, Georgie Lane (Michelle Keegan) through a humanitarian mission in Kenya which soon takes a turn for the worst.

[5] Grounds based the new series in Kenya as he found its ongoing conflict with Somalia to be "an incredible setting for drama" after researching it thoroughly, and the characters would have never "faced anything like the situation they are confronted with".

[6] His co-star and lead actress Michelle Keegan also confirmed that the mission was a humanitarian one and would last over a six-week period for 2-Section, and that the new series would contain nods to the original one.

[8][11] To train for the series, actors had to attend boot camp in the UK for a few weeks,[10] which Keegan was surprised wasn't as bad as she expected: "I was a bit worried because I'd heard it was quite strict due to the army and what they have to go through.

[7] In September 2014, it was announced that Lacey Turner, who played protagonist Molly Dawes in the first series, had left the show to return to her role on EastEnders.

[13] In June 2015, it was announced that, as a result, Michelle Keegan had been cast as Georgie Lane, an army medic and the show's new protagonist for its second series.

[3] Keegan commented that wearing the uniform for the first time felt "quite surreal", but it immediately gave her a "sense of duty", as if she were a member of the army.

[7] Luke Pasqualino was announced to portray a new character, Georgie's ex-fiance Elvis Harte, a Special Forces commander of the SAS group.

[18] Other new cast announcements included Royce Pierreson as Dr Jamie Cole, a "warm and sensible" doctor in love with Georgie,[3] Rolan Bell as Sergeant King, Sean Sagar as Monk, Anthony Oseyemi as the Kenyan forces' Captain Osman,[15] Anna Tenta as Kicki, a Swiss woman who "fell in love with a career in humanitarian relief work",[19] Yusra Warsama as Nafula, Kicki's "passionate and hard-working" co-worker,[19] and Michael James as Jason Raynott, "a lonely chid growing up" who became interested in Islam in later life.