The Great War (TV series)
The Great War | |
---|---|
![]() Image from the Imperial War Museum photo archive, part of the opening titles. | |
Written by | |
Voices of | |
Narrated by | Michael Redgrave |
Theme music composer | Wilfred Josephs |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 26 |
Production | |
Producers |
|
Running time | 40 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 |
Release | 30 May – 22 November 1964 |
The Great War is a 26-episode documentary series from 1964 on the First World War. The documentary was a co-production of the Imperial War Museum, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The narrator was Michael Redgrave, with readings by Marius Goring, Ralph Richardson, Cyril Luckham, Sebastian Shaw and Emlyn Williams. Each episode is c. 40 minutes long.
Production
In August 1963, at the suggestion of Alasdair Milne, producer of the BBC's current affairs programme Tonight, the BBC resolved to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War with a big television project. The series was the first to feature veterans, many of them still relatively fit men in their late sixties or early seventies, speaking of their experiences after a public appeal for veterans was published in the national press.[1] Those who appeared in the series included Edward Spears,[2] Henry Williamson,[3] Horace Birks,[4] Benjamin Muse,[5] Gustav Lachmann, Melvin Krulewitch,[6] George Langley,[7] Keith Officer, Douglas Wimberley,[8] Charles Carrington,[9] Egbert Cadbury,[10] Euan Rabagliati,[11] Robert Cotton Money,[12] Norman Demuth, Walter Greenwood and Cecil Arthur Lewis.[13] Others who were interviewed by the BBC but not featured in the series included Norman MacMillan,[14] Mabel Lethbridge,[15] Edgar von Spiegel,[16] Edmund Blunden,[17] Martin Niemöller,[18] John Shea,[19] Hans Howaldt,[20] William Ibbett,[21] Marthe Bibesco,[22] Philip Joubert de la Ferté [23] and Eric Dorman O'Gowan.[24]
Title sequence
The series title sequence used a rostrum camera to create a montage of three images, the first showing a silhouetted British soldier standing over the grave of a comrade, the camera first focuses on the cross, where the almost imperceptible words IN MEMORY are glanced, the second shows a uniformed, skeletal corpse by the entrance to a dugout. The final image shows a lone British soldier, looking directly into the camera apparently surrounded by corpses, which is a montage of several images combined for dramatic effect.[25][26] The original image of the staring soldier, showing him surrounded by fellow soldiers rather than corpses, was taken from photograph Q 1 in the Imperial War Museum photograph archive but has been described as having quickly become symbolic of the First World War.[27][nb 1] This title sequence was set against the series theme music, composed by Wilfred Josephs and performed by the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra.[28]
Episode listing
The episode titles are taken from quotations, the origins of which are shown in parentheses. With few exceptions, successive blocks of episodes are devoted to each year of the war: episodes 1–6 to 1914, 7–10 to 1915, 11–14 to 1916, 15–19 to 1917, 20–23 and 26 to 1918.
No. | Title | Original air date |
---|---|---|
1 | "on the idle hill of summer... (A. E. Housman)" | 30 May 1964 |
2 | "for such a stupid reason too.... (Queen Mary)" | 6 June 1964 |
3 | "we must hack our way through (Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg)" | 13 June 1964 |
4 | "our hats we doff to General Joffre (1914 jingle)" | 20 June 1964 |
5 | "this business may last a long time (Rudolf Binding)" | 27 June 1964 |
6 | "so sleep easy in your beds (Admiral Fisher)" | 4 July 1964 |
7 | "we await the heavenly manna... (Nikolai Yanushkevich, Russian General)[29]" | 11 July 1964 |
8 | "why don't you come and help?! (David Lloyd George)" | 18 July 1964 |
9 | "please God send us a victory.... (soldiers prayer)" | 25 July 1964 |
10 | "what are our allies doing? (Russian General)" | 1 August 1964 |
11 | "hell cannot be so terrible (a French soldier)" | 8 August 1964 |
12 | "... for Gawd's sake don't send me (1916 song)" | 15 August 1964 |
13 | "the Devil is coming... (German soldier)" | 22 August 1964 |
14 | "all this it is our duty to bear (Lord Lansdowne)" | 29 August 1964 |
15 | "we are betrayed, sold, lost (French soldier)" | 5 September 1964 |
16 | "right is more precious than peace (President Wilson)" | 13 September 1964 |
17 | "surely we have perished (Wilfred Owen)" | 20 September 1964 |
18 | "fat Rodzianko has sent me some nonsense (Czar Nicholas II)" | 27 September 1964 |
19 | "the hell where youth and laughter go (Siegfried Sassoon)" | 4 October 1964 |
20 | "only war, nothing but war (Clemenceau)" | 11 October 1964 |
21 | "it was like the end of the world (German soldier)" | 18 October 1964 |
22 | "damn them, are they never coming in? (F. S. Oliver)" | 25 October 1964 |
23 | "when must the end be? (Hindenburg)" | 1 November 1964 |
24 | "Allah made Mesopotamia — and added flies (Arabian proverb)" | 8 November 1964 |
25 | "the iron thrones are falling (British officer)" | 15 November 1964 |
26 | "...and we were young (A. E. Housman)" | 22 November 1964 |
Two "Extra" episodes exist (only on the dual layer DVD edition):
- Voices from the Western Front
- The Finished Fighter
Musical score
The music for the series was composed by Wilfred Josephs. It was performed by the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Hurst. His expressive yet unsentimental score was widely acclaimed at the time and many have recalled the strong contribution it made to the series: in August 2007, Guardian columnist Ian Jack remembered how at the start of each episode Josephs' 'ominous music ushered the audience into the trenches'.[30] Much use was made of 20th Century symphonies, including Shostakovitch's 11th and Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica. The opening music is the last refrain from Rachmaninov's Symphony No 1. Such musical references do not appear in the credits, therefore a full list of these extra musical elements would be welcome.[nb 2]
Reception
Each episode of The Great War was seen by an average audience of over eight million people, a 17 percent share of the estimated viewing population. The fourth episode, the most popular of the series, reached an audience of over eleven million (22.6 percent of the audience).[31]
Awards
Following transmission of the series by the Republic of Ireland's national TV station, Telefís Éireann, The Great War won a Jacob's Award at the 1964 presentation ceremony in Dublin.[32]
First World War centenary
On 16 October 2013, fifty years after the release of the series, the BBC announced that unshown interview material, recorded during the making of The Great War, will be used in a new programme, My Great War, to be shown as part of the BBC's programmes during the First World War centenary.[33] The programme was first broadcast on 14 March 2014 and entitled "I Was There: the Great War Interviews".
DVD releases
There appear to be two releases as of mid-2007, both in the UK, both Region 2. The audio has been remastered. The first shows copyright 2001 and consists of five volumes, each housing two DVDs (single-layer). On the cover descriptions[34][35][36][37][38] there is no mention of the Extra episodes The other shows copyright 2002 and consists of seven DVDs — six containing the original 26 episodes and one with the two Extras. These discs are dual-layer. It is distributed by DD Video. In October 2007 the Daily Mail distributed the series on DVD to its readers as part of a promotion.[39]
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2008) |
See also
- World War One – CBS production (1964)
- The World at War - Thames Television production (1973)
- The Somme – From Defeat to Victory BBC production (2006)
Notes
- ^ The other two photographs were also taken from the Imperial War Museum photograph archive. The first, of the soldier standing over the grave, was Q 2757 and the second was Q 2041. The photographs were taken by Ernest Brooks, a British Army official photographer.
- ^ Episode 12: "Land of Hope and Glory", "For Gawd's Sake Don't Send Me", "The British Grenadiers", "Abide With Me", Shostakovich, Sym. 11, mov. 2; Episode 14: Shostakovich: Sym. 11, mov. 2, Chopin: Marche funebre, "Abide With Me", "Noel", "Keep the Home Fires Burning".
Footnotes
- ^ Hanna 2007, p. 95.
- ^ "The Great War Interviews: 12 Edward Louis Spears" (Adobe Flash).
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- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004129
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004145
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004236
- ^ "The Great War Interviews: 6 Charles Carrington" (Adobe Flash).
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- ^ "The Great War Interviews: 4 Cecil Arthur Lewis" (Adobe Flash).
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- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004207
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004012
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004165
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004202
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004119
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004117
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004004
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004123
- ^ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004164
- ^ Opening sequence; amended imagery appears at 38 seconds
- ^ Hanna 2007, p. 97.
- ^ Hanna 2007, p. 101.
- ^ Hanna 2007, p. 99.
- ^ Lloyd George 1933, p. 389.
- ^ Jack 2007.
- ^ Todman 2002, p. 29.
- ^ Irish Times 1964.
- ^ BBC 2013.
- ^ Cdcovers.cc / DVD / The Great War Disk 1-2 / front
- ^ Cdcovers.cc / DVD / The Great War Disk 3-4 / front
- ^ Cdcovers.cc / DVD / The Great War Disk 5-6 / front
- ^ Cdcovers.cc / DVD / The Great War Disk 7-8 / front
- ^ Cdcovers.cc / DVD / The Great War Disk 9-10 / front
- ^ Barnett 2007.
References
- Books
- Lloyd George, D. (1933). War Memoirs of David Lloyd George. Vol. I (Little, Brown, Boston 1937 ed.). London: Nicholson & Watson. OCLC 18436449.
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- Journals
- Hanna, E. (February 2007). "A Small Screen Alternative to Stone and Bronze: The Great War Series and British Television". European Journal of Cultural Studies. 10 (1). ISSN 1460-3551. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - "Television Awards Presented". The Irish Times. 2 December 1964. ISSN 1699-311X.
- Jack, I. (11 August 2007). "Historical Anniversaries Obliterate the Kingdom of Individuals". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Todman, D. (2002). "The Reception of The Great War in the 1960s". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 22 (1): 29–36. doi:10.1080/01439680220120264. ISSN 0143-9685.
{{cite journal}}
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- Websites
- Barnett, C. (12 October 2007). "Fought on the Bloody French Battlefields Nearly 100 Years Ago, How the Great War Still Impacts On Us Today". Mail Online. ISSN 0307-7578. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - BBC (16 October 2013). "Marking the Centenary of World War One Across the BBC: Documentaries". Retrieved 17 October 2013.
{{cite web}}
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Further reading
- Badsey, S. (2002). "The Great War Since The Great War". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 22 (1): 37–45. doi:10.1080/01439680220120273. ISSN 0143-9685.
- Connelly, M. L. (2002). "The Great War: The Devil is Coming (Part 13)". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 22 (1): 21–28. doi:10.1080/01439680220120255. ISSN 0143-9685.
- Kuehl, J. (2003). "The Great War on DD Video (Review Essay)". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 23 (3): 285–287. doi:10.1080/0143968032000095613. ISSN 0143-9685.
- Ramsden, J. A. (2002). "The Great War: The Making of the Series". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 22 (1): 7–19. doi:10.1080/01439680220120246. ISSN 0143-9685.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- How the Great War Was Lost - and Found (The review wrongly implies the score for the series was either indebted to, or written by Sir William Walton, whom it also erroneously cites for the score of Scott of the Antarctic, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams.)
- The Great War, Episode 6
- The Great War at IMDb
- IWM Interview with Euan Rabagliati, who appeared in "We Must Hack Our Way Through"
- IWM Interview with Frederick Atkinson, who appeared in "Our Hats We Doff To General Joffre"
- IWM Interview with Ernest Amis, who appeared in "So Sleep Easy In Your Beds"
- IWM Interview with Joseph Murray, who appeared in "Please God Send Us A Victory"
- IWM Interview with Richard Talbot Kelly, who appeared in "What Are Our Allies Doing?" & "Surely We Have Perished"
- IWM Interview with Horace Birks, who appeared in "The Hell Where Youth And Laughter Go"
- IWM Interview with Herbert Sulzbach, who appeared in "And We Were Young"