BBC acts as if we lost WWI, says Iraq hero
THE BBC has allowed grief over the horrors of the First World War to overshadow the fact that it was a great military victory, according to a celebrated Army commander.
Colonel Tim Collins, famous for his stirring eve of battle speech before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said younger generations could be forgiven for thinking Britain lost the war in 1918.
The “brilliance” of leadership in the Great War has been ignored in favour of the “Blackadder version” of the conflict, in which men were sent over the top to certain death by incompetent and cowardly generals.
Television viewers “endure a diet of woe and horror” and nowhere more so than the BBC, Col Collins said, as he called on the corporation to add a note of triumph to its commemorative broadcasts this year.
“With the centenary of the end of the First World War looming, one might not realise from the TV series recalling those momentous times that Britain and her Allies won the war,” he said. “Last year’s coverage of the Passchen- daele anniversary by the BBC was a prime example. While paying appropriate tribute to the sacrifice of the many soldiers who lost their lives, it was saturated in grief, in the horror and pity of war.
“When the time comes to mark 100 years since the Armistice later this year, I am calling on the BBC to also note that we are marking a victory.” He urged the BBC and other broadcasters
to introduce balance to their reporting of the First World War and to show that “our forefathers… were not mindless dupes slaughtered in their thousands for no reason, but volunteers as well as conscripts who stood up to evil and, through hard-won excellence, defeated it.”
Writing in Radio Times, Col Collins said: “Coverage of the First World War focuses almost completely on what has been called the ‘Blackadder version’.
“‘Lions led by donkeys’ is the characterisation of the British forces and is, effectively all the current generation knows of these events. But if the German generals were so clever, and ours so dumb, how did we win?”
Last night, a BBC spokesman said: “The BBC has produced a huge amount of programming about World War One over the last four years. We’ve aimed to reflect every aspect of the war.
“Our programming has celebrated our forces’ achievements and this will continue in 2018 with programmes charting the spectacular turnaround in 1918 as the Allies turned potential defeat into victory, and a special focus on the RAF as it celebrates its centenary.
“With comprehensive coverage of Armistice Day later this year we will continue to tell a balanced history of the war.”