OTHER THAN THE TIDE
beach the night before he sailed to France,” he says, referring to the author of perhaps the greatest poem to emerge from the Great War, Dulce Et Decorum Est.
“And, of course, like so many others he never returned. The scale of the thing is just staggering. Nine million servicemen lost their lives: that works out at four people every single minute for four years.”
Danny Boyle’s involvement in the programme has a special significance too. The organisers of 14-18 NOW admit that when they were considering artists to collaborate with, his name was top of the list.
Although he made his reputation as director of films such as Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire (for which he won a Best Director Oscar in 2009), he is, perhaps, best remembered in Britain for his spectacular opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Under his guidance, what could have been just another embarrassing parade of awkward musical performances and overblown choreography became a joyous, occasionally riotous and often very funny celebration of just what it means to be British… and elevated its director to National Treasure status. And it is that same deep affection and strong belief in the power of British communities that is driving this project.
“I was flattered to be asked,” he says now. “I’ve not done anything public, really, since the Olympic opening ceremony and one of my favourite bits in that was a small part in the Industrial Revolution section that commemorated the fallen of World War One.
“It was a very beautiful moment, I thought, and I was delighted to be given the chance to think of something else to do.”
HE ADDS: “It’s not dissimilar to the Olympics in the way that we started something and then, through the volunteers, it almost took on a life of its own. I’m hoping that the same spirit will drive this through local communities coming together. I’m just the catalyst, really.”
In the course of his he also found himself research, strangely affected by the fate of one particular soldier, Private Walter Bleakley, who was born and grew up in School Road, Radcliffe, Manchester – right next to where Boyle himself went to school.
“I don’t have any relatives who died in this war but I found myself really touched by Walter’s story,” he says. “I found out about him through a local expert Jonathan Ali and Walter’s own great niece Julie Gladwin.
“He joined with his two mates and died within minutes of the start of the Battle Of The Somme… he’s just typical of how, once you start really looking into the history of this war, you throw up all these stories. Everyone is affected somehow.”
Underpinning Pages Of The Sea is the same restless, relentless energy that fired up cinema audiences in films such as Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire and brought a new optimism to the country in that ceremony in 2012.
At 61, Boyle may no longer be the hotshot, young iconoclast he was in the 1990s but 24 years after his debut film Shallow Grave, he has lost none of his passionate belief in the idea that the arts can make a difference on a fundamentally human level. “Although we’ve obviously got the poem and the sand portraits, I really don’t want this to be too centrally dictated,” he says.
“It’s up to each of the local communities to decide for themselves what they want to do, they can take it in their own direction. We’re just giving them a starting point.
“Even though it’s marking the Armistice, it doesn’t even have to be a particularly sad occasion, it could be quite celebratory.
“There might be bands, for example, I think some of the drummers from London 2012 might get involved. But most importantly, I see the whole thing as a way of bringing a lot of people together to say what might be a final goodbye… and a thank you.
“A thank you to all those who sacrificed so much for us.” The work of 14-18 NOW is made possible thanks to funding raised by National Lottery players Daily Express Saturday October 6 2018