Second season finale for World on Fire

Although it is a relatively new term (it was first used during the 1970s following the Vietnam War), PTSD is nothing new.

And writer Peter Bowker hasn’t been afraid of raising the issue of trauma after tragedy in his superior war drama World on Fire.

Kasia (Zofia Wichlacz) was clearly struggling with the condition in the first episode after fleeing her native Poland and following her new husband, translator Harry Chase (Jonah Hauer-King) back to Britain.

In tonight’s second season finale, there are increased concerns about Harry’s own mental health, with Briggs informing him that he will be shipped out of Tobruk, either for a month’s rest or to be signed off indefinitely by a psychiatrist.

Harry is furious at the inference that he is following in his father’s footsteps (we learnt in the first series that Harry’s dad died by suicide), but he reluctantly accepts the CO’s terms.

“As Harry gets older, he’s plagued by all these questions about what led his father to that moment,” Hauer-King explains.

“Those feelings gradually simmer up into a quite hysterical mania, of not really knowing who he is and where he’s come from, which has massive implications for Harry and his sense of his own identity.

“He begins to worry that he and his dad are quite similar and that he may well be heading in the same direction.”

Back on British soil, Harry is clearly a changed man. He visits a grieving widow, who urges him not to blame himself for his comrade’s death, and as he makes his way to Manchester, he is unaware that Kasia will soon be leaving for Europe.

Meanwhile, Lois visits Robina, who again refuses to let her take Vera.

When Harry intervenes, Robina lashes out at her son, and blurts out that his wife is hiding something from him.

Later, Sir James arrives from London with an apology for Robina, and much to her amazement, a marriage proposal. Whether or not she accepts it remains to be seen.

Over in Germany, Marga has grown disillusioned, and plots her own escape.

Sneaking out of the castle under the cover of night, she sets off for Berlin on foot.

However, when she arrives home, she doesn’t get the welcome she’d hoped for, with Mrs Kuhne fretting that her daughter will never find a husband after what she’s done.

Having secured a crossing back to England, David says a painful goodbye to Henriette, promising to find her in Paris after the war.

But as she makes her way back to the village, she is confronted by patrolling German soldiers, who suspect her papers are fake.

After she is forced to withstand brutal interrogation at an internment camp, she is reunited with Albert, who gravely warns her that she will be moved to Ravensbrück, and may not get out alive.

Can she find a way to escape?

Finally, in the desert outside Tobruk, Rajib and his men encounter a group of patrolling Germans.

In the melee, disaster strikes when the minefield is triggered, and Rajib is rushed to hospital with potentially life-altering injuries.

When Rajib finally wakes, he reflects on the conflict and vows that once it is over, their fight will be for Indian Independence.

If Bowker’s drama has taught us one thing, it’s that war can affect people in very different ways.