A platoon of fresh-faced infantry recruits take on a gruelling six-month training course to see if they have what it takes to fight on the frontline in the British Army.

This five-part series charts the transformation of the recruits as they leave friends and family behind for the British Army’s Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, North Yorkshire. Amongst them is an ex-aspiring footballer from Middlesbrough, a former fast-food restaurant worker, a 20-year-old whose mother is a pacifist, and an 18-year-old woman who hails from a military family and is eager to follow in the footsteps of her father.

Women have only been permitted to join frontline infantry roles since 2018, and they must meet the same standards as men.

The 45 recruits tackle punishing obstacle courses, handle and fire weapons, undergo rigorous inspections, and crucially, learn how to kill at close quarters using only a bayonet.

Under the watchful eyes of Lieutenant Wahab, Sergeant McIntosh and Corporal White, recruits face the reality of what it means to be a frontline soldier at a time when war is raging in Europe for the first time in a generation. Some will stay the course as they achieve things they never dreamed themselves capable of, and others will struggle at the first hurdle.

Soldier is a BBC Factual and BBC England co-commission and has been produced by Label1, makers of the multi-award-winning BBC series ‘Hospital’. The first episode airs on Thursday 5 October at 9pm on BBC One and the series will then run weekly.

The series producer is Kim Rossiter and the series director is Paul Wells. It is executive produced by Fran Baker, Lorraine Charker-Phillips and Simon Dickson. The commissioning editors for the BBC are Jack Bootle and Tony Parker