Homefront, ITV1, review - Telegraph Wives have been oddly popular on TV for a few years now. We've had desperate ones, ones married to prisoners and footballers, "real" ones of New Jersey, even baby-delivering ones, so it seems a little tardy of ITV to only come up with Homefront - a prime-time drama about a community of women married to soldiers serving in Afghanistan - now. The subject matter allows for romance, tension and action, while staying just topical enough to segue smoothly into the News at Ten. One might expect a drama like this to start with lots of men in camouflage lurking behind sand dunes, but it actually took about 10 minutes for me to realise that the first episode of Homefront (definitely not to be confused with Channel 4 drama Homeland) had started and this wasn't just an extended advertisement for hair straighteners. It began with some brassy women giggling and groping in a provincial nightclub. But then the tone shifted abruptly and became a lot more compelling when a hung-over Tasha Raveley (Antonia Thomas) got the knock at the door that every military wife dreads. She was told that her young husband Matt had been killed in action, turning her into a twentysomething widow and single mother. It was pretty bold to shove a tragic, dramatic death into the six-part series so early - will there be one every episode or is that it? Actually, that's probably it as the other storylines that were introduced in this first week seemed to suggest that a lot of the ensuing action will centre more around war of the domestic variety. Louise Mancetta (Nicola Stephenson) was set up as a friend and confidante to all, and a devoted wife to her own soldier husband Joe (Warren Brown), who she stays in touch with via webcam. How lovely... oh, except he's involved in some extramarital dodginess. Well, if everyone was sweet, kind and faithful, there wouldn't be much point in watching an ITV drama. Meanwhile, Claire Marshbrook (Claire Skinner) was a sympathetic, if somewhat limp figure, engaged to Major Pete Bartham (Greg Wise), who appears to be a baddy. This is a straightforward ITV1 drama so it's easy to spot a baddy - they have mean eyes and more polished vowels than everyone else. If only poor Claire had known how to spot these telltale signs when she first fell for Major Bartham she could have saved herself a lot of bother, particularly all the bother that appears to be coming her way via his tearaway teenaged daughter. Tearaway teens? Skype sex? Yes, despite its serious, newsy hook, Homefront is essentially a soap opera and like most soaps, the cast initially appears unremarkable and the setting is drab. Nevertheless, it has potential to be an emotionally gripping drama.