Cato

Hester has far, FAR too much self respect to even consider herself friends with Monty- a person who constantly belittles and insults her. I can’t think of a single point in the show where Hester really seems to ‘like’ Monty. She constantly challenges and questions Monty in a way no other character (including Bevan) does, and I don’t think Monty would class himself as her friend either. They are completely different people who hold completely different views about the war. Hester knows the consequences of war and Monty just thinks it’s all a game to win. They aren’t friends and neither of them want to be friends.

By the end of the show, Hester and Jean are what I’d consider friends. Especially post Useful. But the relationship is not mother-daughter, it’s mentor-mentee. They both help the other in realising things about themselves and by Glitzy it seems like they are talking about more personal things- things that Hester would never have spoken about to her colleagues at the start of the show. But they’re just friends, friends in the way that women at the time had to stick together to survive in such a misogynistic, male-centric world.

Hester’s relationship with Charles is much harder to pin down. There are times when Charles is on Hester’s side versus Monty: the part in Making a Man when Monty calls Bill ‘just a trap’, and in the confrontation. But there are just as many times where Charles is on Monty’s side, or at least not on Hester’s: ‘oh, give us a break, Hester!’ before Dear Bill, and in the bloody tea scene where both Hester and Jean give Charles an opportunity to stick up for them but he does. So, I think whether Hester considers Charles a friend or not depends on whether he’s with or trying to be like Monty.

Sorry for the essay but I’ve been having Thoughts™

1 the Long Making A Man version where Hester has a moment alone with a stressed Charles who is feeling pressure from Monty to just make the corpse canteen work while Monty goes off to the club with Jean. Hester had a sharp sort of line where she said she Knows Very Well How Montagu Can Be, which is the strongest her disapproval can be (she is not free to publicly criticise Monty, especially not to his face) and the encouragement she gives Charles, even when he doesn’t expect it - it’s the closest evidence you can see of Hester liking Charles and it contrasts with his descent into Montyism. (As anon says! Hester likes pre-Monty Charles)

MADELEINE JACKSON-SMITH as Ewen Montagu & Others AHMED HAMAD as Charles Cholmondeley & Others CHLOË HART as Johnny Bevan & Others COLM GLEESON as Hester Leggatt & Others CHARLOTTE FLEMING as Jean Leslie & Others

Ewen Montagu gets a Victoria Cross, because he's a genius

William Martin gets a posthumous Victoria Cross, entrusted to the care of Ewen Montagu

Charles Cholmondeley gets a Victoria Cross while off in the Middle East; Ewen Montagu collects for him but he never comes back for it