Into trench warfare

that I didn’t have that problem.

‘‘I think we all felt that the more tragic the script became, the more we would protect ourselves with humour.’’

But Jones also admits that they were careful not to fall into a Blackadder Goes Forth-esque parody of the war (Jones’ character and his struggles to create ‘‘yellow soup’’ and ‘‘onion tea’’ for his colleagues do come dangerously close to the beloved sitcom’s Baldrick).

‘‘I think that was a danger for all of us. In trying to imagine how people would behave in what seems like a suicidal situation, it is very easy to fall into parody because it’s so hard to understand. In a way you can’t understand it really, you just have to trust the voice of the play and the screenplay.’’

As for playing a chef, Jones says while he’s only a basic cook himself, it is always great to have ‘‘something to do’’ in a part.

‘‘It takes the heat off you. You can act through movement as much as the way you are speaking. I often prefer concentrating on a task to words and, here, I was encouraged to invent a kind of silent presence within the film.’’

Looking forward to seeing Sir Peter Jackson’s documentary on the experiences of British WWI soldiers (They Shall Not Grow Old, see review at right), Jones says there definitely seems to be a sense of re-examining that period in the lead-up to this weekend’s Armistice Day centenary commemorations.

‘‘It is hard to get your head around the culture that existed before and during the conflict, because that sense of duty and honour – deference even – seems so much to have been killed off by that war.’’

Saying he would love to come back to New Zealand for a film, theatre or television project (he performed his Wanted Man play here back at the NZ Festival in 2002), Jones hopes that, as with any acting job, Journey’s End gives viewers a window into what the characters’ lives might have been like.

‘‘Like any piece of drama, you hope that even if viewers are shocked or upset, they feel maybe a more direct empathy for the day-to-day experience of being in a situation like that.

‘‘Hopefully we’ve humanised something that is usually only read about.’’

Hopefully we’ve humanised something that is usually only read about.

Journey’s End (M) is screening in cinemas now.