100 DAYS TO VICTORY

BBC Two, 8.00pm

Most people are familiar with Field Marshal Haig and Marshal Foch, and how they came to embody the idea of “lions being led by donkeys” on the Western Front, but fewer will have heard of the generals to whom they eventually came to defer. 100 Days to Victory joins the Allied war effort at its lowest ebb, over-run by German offensives and awaiting American aid to fill the gap left by Russia’s withdrawal.

Enter John Monash and Arthur Currie, the former an Australian aesthete of German heritage, the latter a failed real-estate developer and embezzler from Canada. In this new two-part docudrama, Don Featherstone argues that it was this pair who revitalised the Allied war effort through their innovative, unorthodox counter-offensive strategies at Amiens. In the words of sergeant LA Morrison (one of several diarists to be quoted effectively): “Bang, clang, blatter.”

Among multinational docudramas – and there have been some stinkers – 100 Days to Victory is very decent. The CGI is convincing and the performances solid; while many pipes are smoked and moustaches stroked. The angle is genuinely fresh too. It adds up to an enlightening examination of a pivotal but underreported moment in history.

Gabriel Tate

War stories: the harrowing history of the Western Front