They Shall Not Grow Old

BBC2, 9.30pm, today

Peter Jackson, the man behind The Lord Of The Rings films, is no stranger to epic, ambitious projects, but this documentary may be his most remarkable to date as he sets out to bring the First World War to life in a way that’s never been seen before. The film-maker has used original footage from the Imperial War Museum’s archive and audio from the BBC to show the realities of war. That might not sound so different from many other programmes about the conflict, but Jackson has colourised the film and transformed it with modern production techniques, while lip readers were also used to give soldiers their voices back. The result is a moving and fascinating film, which reminds us again that the soldiers were ordinary people who made extraordinary sacrifices.