When the guns cease
The BBC will be airing an extensive season of programmes to mark the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day BBC World War One Centenary TV & RADIO Scheduled for November
For many who fought in the First World War, the cessation of hostilities was the prelude to a longer struggle. Haunted by the horrors of mechanised conflict, these were the troops who suffered with shell shock. In the decades since – as Dan Snow explores in WWI’s
Secret Shame: Shell Shock (November), a documentary tracing the history of our understanding of what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder – generations of servicemen and servicewomen have suffered from mental health problems.
Snow’s film forms part of a season across the BBC’s networks to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Other highlights include
They Shall Not Grow Old (BBC One), directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, which features colourised footage from the Imperial War Museum archive, and concludes with a 20-minute combat sequence giving modern audiences an idea of what it might have been like to serve on the western front.
The Last Hundred Days (BBC One) focuses on how the Allies recovered from a perilous position in early 1918 to defeat the German war machine
just over six months later. The drama-documentary shows the conflict from multiple viewpoints. In addition, BBC One will be following events held to mark Armistice Day.
On BBC Four, Britain’s Great War:
The People’s Story (November – see page 28) features the first-hand testimony of both those who fought and those who served on the home front. Dan Cruickshank’s Monuments
of Remembrance (11 November, BBC Four) finds the historian exploring the stories behind the monuments and cemeteries built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Look out, too, for regional programming that will also be on BBC iPlayer, notably Captain Jack and
the Furious Few (BBC Two Northern Ireland). This shows how the Royal Navy and its test pilots developed the technology that would make HMS Furious one of the world’s first aircraft carriers.
On Radio 4, Armistice 1918 offers five historians the chance to challenge the conventional story of the armistice and its aftermath. In addition, long-running shows Tommies and Home Front will reach their conclusions – the latter with a special episode set on the eve of the first remembrance day in 1919.
A 20-minute combat sequence gives audiences an idea of life on the western front