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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

My Family At War


Paul Reed

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I thought it was a very interesting series, and it was good that each story featured a different aspect or twist. There was quite a range of situations covered - nothing on the war at sea though. But perhaps it leaves the door open for more. Good that they brought out aspects like the man whose health was ruined purely by the conditions, rather than by battle; and of course the final cruelty of the flu epidemic.

I found the Natalie Cassidy episode interesting, even though it was a bit speculative as to the home front bit. It would have been more satisfying (for her too) to have been able to find some proof of what her family was up to, but I didn't think it detracted too much.

The Snow episode I felt was an uncomfortable fit. As others have commented, given Dan Snow's subject is history, it wasn't very convincing that his grandfather's story was new to him. I can just about believe that he might not have got around to reading the letters, since they were at the IWM and not in a box in his attic, but it all felt a bit shoehorned into this series. I can understand them wanting to include a senior officer story, but really this one would have been better as a separate, longer programme.

This series seemed like a direct take on "Who Do You Think You Are" which is very popular, so easy to see why they went this route. My only real gripe was the voice-over script. Why do they have to treat us as if we all have the memory span of a gnat? I got so sick of being told that "so-and-so is on the trail of his great-uncle who ..." etc. WE KNOW! The last segment was only five minutes ago! And every week the intro told us that these people were "some of our most-loved celebrities" or somesuch. Yes, well that's a bit subjective. For example, I hadn't even heard of Kate Silverton, never seen her before and still don't have a clue who she is, nor do I care. Just stop patronising us, please, BBC.

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Great series.

I know what you mean, Greyhound, about the repetition of "x is on the trail of his great-uncle", but I am sure this will have been in view of sales to other channels abroad who will be inserting commercial breaks from time to time during the programme. (My husband was a TV producer.)

I agree about the "celebrity" status too! I think only about half were familiar to me. Or maybe we are showing our age!! ;)

Angela

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I think the Snow controversy must have been deliberately thrown into the mix to add a bit of spice. Otherwise the series could be regarded as a bit samey - although anoraks like us loved it.

I suppose the problem with my thesis is that the Snow debate also only excites the same Great War anoraks.

I have to say that I recognised all the so called celebs and found most of them very likeable. They all reacted in the approved manner getting choked up at the right times and expressing suitable amazement at the various enormities of the Great War as they revealed to them. Excellent folk.

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I myself found the series excellent and very moving.

As to factual details being in-accurate etc I do not know enough about them to make

any comment either way, although we all have a right to our point of view of course.

Thank you to all those involved.

To the memory of everyone who has lost a member(s) of their family since The Great War.

May they rest in peace.

Sandy

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I know what you mean, Greyhound, about the repetition of "x is on the trail of his great-uncle", but I am sure this will have been in view of sales to other channels abroad who will be inserting commercial breaks from time to time during the programme. (My husband was a TV producer.)

I see what you're saying, but I find it quite unnecessary when it happens in programmes with ad breaks as well. I suppose I should be grateful that they didn't subject us to "Still to come ..." at the end of each bit. :rolleyes:

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I've just watched (Friday 10.30 am) the last episode with the major TV personalities Paul and Peter and two minor other Z list people Kristy and Rolf and had to say that I felt it was one of the most moving Great War programmes I've ever seen......at one point several large pieces of grit flew into my eyes and they excreted a small amount of fluid......

Well done everyone.......

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I have been sitting reading all the posts from start to finish and some are valid and some, I feel are not. Surely many of the the posts are missing something, whatever you may think of the series it was hopefully making the younger generation aware of the secrifices made 90 years ago but a pity it was not on earlier in the evening.

I was involved in the filming of the Kate Silverton one (some of us have all the luck). In the case of kate's great grandfather we spent some time filming his pension records and debating what someone of his age with so many children was actually worth as far as the pension office was concerned and also talking about the 'hidden wounds' of war. That injuries are not just the visible gun shot wounds etc. All in all about three hours filming down to 20 minutes actually shown.

In the case of the Jo Brand piece I filmed again about three hours discussing nursing during WW1 only to have it totally cut because they wanted to concentrate on her love life. Any way, I am sure you would sooner look at Sue than me.

Remember, be thankful that we got so many WW1 programmes instead of a re-run of some awful BBC series and do not forget that 'He who pays the piper calls the tune'.

Pete

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have caught all but one of these programmes over the last few weeks - was in Macedonia over the week of the 11th so thanks to BBC4 repeats I caught up on my return. Overall I thought it was a good series. As many have already said, the chances are that through the use of celebs a wider audience may well have been drawn into the series and now have some knowledge of WWI. My only gripe is that this knowledge will reinforce the old view that everything happened on the Western Front. Obviously, this was the main theatre of war and a goodly proportion of the experiences covered had to cover the fighting in France and Flanders. However, what about Salonika, Italy, Palestine, Mespot, East Africa and Gallipoli (funny this No.2 theatre in terms of TV coverage never got a look in). Also, what about the Royal Navy? The latter would have been more difficult to make visually interesting given the lack of surviving ships and the fact that the sea is pretty featureless. Even so, the other theatres of war could have got a look in. The 90th Anniversary would have been an excellent opportunity for the BBC to take a lead in showing that 'WWI' stands for 'WORLD' War I. Wonder if anything will have changed in 10 years time - I kind of have my doubts!!!

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Well, as one might expect, I agree with Alan's comments above. The programmes were fine, but a bit samey. However, there are two other points of interest to me as an archivist working in the military field:

1. The programme and Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA) give the impression that it is easy to find out information on relatives - you just sit there while some bloke gives chapter and verse and shows you stuff (no research there by th celebs, though someone had to find this stuff out for them - archivists or researchers), giving very distorted picture of how easy/hard info can be to get, eg, the fact that so many records got blitzed in WWII. This is not the experience of the public, who are helped by professionals as much as resources allow, but have to largely get on with it themselves - I thought that was the point of family history anyhow?

2. Second, given the interest in military family history, why not have a programme which explains how to do it properly, using such examples? Or would that just not be such good television as John Sergeant on Strictly Come Dancing.......seriously, people who get the bug to look for their WWI ancestors is great why not help them even more by showing them how to get the most out of it, rather than fast-tracking celebs through as entertainment.

Just a few thoughts,

Simon Moody

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1. The programme and Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA) give the impression that it is easy to find out information on relatives - you just sit there while some bloke gives chapter and verse and shows you stuff (no research there by th celebs, though someone had to find this stuff out for them - archivists or researchers), giving very distorted picture of how easy/hard info can be to get, eg, the fact that so many records got blitzed in WWII. This is not the experience of the public, who are helped by professionals as much as resources allow, but have to largely get on with it themselves - I thought that was the point of family history anyhow?
Yes, that's the one thing that really annoys me about this sort of programme. I really wonder what impression of the National Archives it gives people - they must think that you can just turn up, give them a name, and you get everything handed to you on a plate. Of course, the opposite is also true, when a programme makes it seem that something which is actually fairly easy to check is monumentally difficult. "Amazingly, after an extensive search Researcher X has managed to find the records of Ship Y, which Celebrity Z's relative was known to have been on." "How hard is that?" my wife will ask, and a couple of seconds on the NA's online catalogue will demonstrate "not very"....
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The series also gives the impression that you will be met on the platform by the county archivist when your train pulls into Blanktown station; that you will be invited to inspect the deepest recesses of the NA's storerooms, and that you and I, Joe Licencepayer, are actually allowed to enter the BBC Written Archives at Caversham.

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And the Imperial War Museum will let you look at their collection of records in the comfort of your own home <_< .

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  • Admin

But an hour long programme of someone spending a fruitless day at the NA and banging their head on the table in frustration isn't seen as good TV by the powers that be I imagine...................

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But an hour long programme of someone spending a fruitless day at the NA and banging their head on the table in frustration isn't seen as good TV by the powers that be I imagine...................

Would you watch it? :P

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We watch it regularly - the Live version.

Steve.

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