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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

BBC at work


Chris_Baker

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I have to admit that I am looking forward to this one. Yes of course it could all go horribly wrong but at least it shows a real commitment to mark the centenary by doing something that has not been attempted before.

I am dreading the badly cobbled together TV documentaries and four years of 'Its A Long Way to Tipperary'.

BBC radio drama appear to be up to something:

http://www.guardian....dio-4-war-drama

the facts as always appear to be a bit skew-whiff but the thrust of it seems interesting

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Oh if only Richard Holmes was still with us, such a shame, as he would have been perfect for this project.

Maxi

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Spoke to BBC CWR today seem to be open to ideas at the minute, although looking at 18 months to be go plenty of planning...

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I'm just thinking, if the BBC are involved I think we can almost certainly have Jamie Oliver (et al) interrupting a good documentary to cook up some examples of "trench cuisine" ....... Of course it will be nothing like what soldiers actually ate, it will almost certainly contain garlic and be garnished with parsley. TThe BBC can not produce any documentary this days without a bit of cooking.

A few programme titles:

Master chef:Flanders

Strictly World War One

Two fat ladies go to the Somme

Escape to the Somme

Homes under the Keiser

Celebrity Trench Walks

And, of course.....Pointless!

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You forgot ITV offering

I'm a Celebrity Get me out of here...The Trench Special

or Life on Mars where a young officer gets shot and wakes up back in 1914-1918 where he sets about solving crime (investigating who keeps sending men over the top) and courting (believe that was the phrase back in the day!!) ..a nurse who happens to be his only ticket for getting back to 2014.

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Part of Britain's renewable energy requirements might be solved by opening Lord Reith's grave and installing a rotary generator. Given today's events he must be spinning at a fair number of rpm. I suspet that the BBC will have other matters on its collective mind for a while.

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I was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman for this series of programs back in June. I was initially contacted via this forum by a BBC researcher asking for people who knew the stories of family members conscripted in 1916 in the Preston area, my grandfather fitted the bill. I told my granddad's story, he survived the war, but came back from Northern Russia in early 1919 to find his wife dead from the 'flu epidemic and later that year was present at the death of his older brother who died from complications from a bout of trench fever in 1916. The interview was at Preston's Fulwood Barracks and the curator there was also being interviewed on the same day. As far as I could make out at that date the filming had only just begun and the project was still being planned and worked out. If my contribution survives it will, I think. form part of a section of one program dealing with the effect of the war on ordinary families.

Dave Swarbrick

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Life on Mars where a young officer gets shot and wakes up back in 1914-1918 where he sets about solving crime (investigating who keeps sending men over the top) and courting (believe that was the phrase back in the day!!) ..a nurse who happens to be his only ticket for getting back to 2014.

Write that script and I think you are in with a real chance!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some of you may have seen that we are planning a large "Tracks to the Trenches - 2014" event at our Apedale site in September 2014. www.ww1-event.org

There is a huge amount of background work going on at the moment (WW1 light railways is a major passion of mine) & various construction projects will start soon.

We are keen to have TV/Filming involvement with us......

Cheers,

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  • 3 weeks later...

I really like Paxman. I saw his series on the Victorians and the Empire via You Tube. Hopefully, we will get to see this here or it will drift to You Tube eventually.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will get a new series here as we are in the midst of Civil War 150th year anniversary. There was a good one made by PBS in the late 90s though and I saw that pop up on You Tube.

(Off-topic: If you have any interest in the American Civil War, Ric Burns did a good documentary this year about "Death and the Civil War" in the Ken Burns mold ( he is his brother). As expected, it is not cheerful, but I thought it was well done.)

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Spent pre Christmas drinks with a bloke who produces documentaries ,and he was commenting on the coming commeration events , one possible documentary he is working on is on the Bantams in the Great War , so far so good apart from in a previous life he wrote scripts for Lovejoy ! Bodes well ?

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I think that a Bantam documentary might be interesting. Only realised very recently that war poet Isaac Rosenberg was in a Bantam regiment -12th batalion of the Suffolk Regiment ( source 'Isaac Rosenberg -The Making of a Great War Poet A New Life' by Jean Moorcroft Wilson. )

Regards

Michael Bully

Spent pre Christmas drinks with a bloke who produces documentaries ,and he was commenting on the coming commeration events , one possible documentary he is working on is on the Bantams in the Great War , so far so good apart from in a previous life he wrote scripts for Lovejoy ! Bodes well ?

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... a Bantam regiment ...

What were Bantam regiments ?

Tom

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So no issues with a bloke who did 3 scripts for Lovejoy 2 of which were dumped doing a documentary for the Great War ? Dudley Sutton as Haig ? Ian Mcshane plays ? Well Ian Mcshane and a bit of posh totty as the love interest .

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Thanks for the link Dave – links into the world of Wiki are often a bit of an education, but in this case there doesn’t seem to be anything there to help me with what a Bantam Regiment might have been.

There don’t seem to be any in the Army Lists either; Bantam Regiments, that is.

Tom

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So now it's clear that I don't immediately recognise the difference between a Regiment andf a Battalion and I've stopped kicking myself for not doing what I used to tell my erstwhile students always to do - i.e. read the question! [big - if rather ruthful - grin]

Happy New Year

Dave Swarbrick

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Oops my error, should be Battalions. 'Bantam Regiments' doesn't make sense. Happy New Year to all GWF pals. Michael Bully

So now it's clear that I don't immediately recognise the difference between a Regiment andf a Battalion and I've stopped kicking myself for not doing what I used to tell my erstwhile students always to do - i.e. read the question! [big - if rather ruthful - grin]

Happy New Year

Dave Swarbrick

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i'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt, Hesmond; "Lovejoy" will have paid the bills, the WW1 documentary may be a work of love :hypocrite:

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True his grandad was in a Bantam battalion ,not sure which regiment ,also done some archeology documentarys and any way he is not a Dan Snow fan ,so must give him the benefit of the doubt ?

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Indeed. I don't think that I have ever watched "Lovejoy" and have had to quickly do a websearch to see what the series was about. Will certailny give this chap a chance. Regards.

i'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt, Hesmond; "Lovejoy" will have paid the bills, the WW1 documentary may be a work of love :hypocrite:

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  • 2 weeks later...

On 9 January 2013 www.broadcastnow.co.uk published the following article:

Adrian van Klaveren Parachuted into BBC’s WW1 Plans

Adrian van Klaveren, the former BBC Radio 5 Live boss who lost his job in the wake of Jimmy Savile scandal, is to oversee the corporation’s programming plans for the centenary of World War I.

Van Klaveren is set to be named editor of the Great War project after the BBC said it would move him into a senior non-news role following the publication of the damning Pollard inquiry last year. It is likely that van Klaveren will co-ordinate WWI coverage across different channels and genres, with BBC Radio stations and online teams also feeding into the work.

The role is yet to be formally signed off while there is also no confirmation on the position former Newsnight editor Peter Rippon will take on outside of the BBC’s news division further to his departure. A BBC spokesman said: “Details on new roles will be confirmed in due course”.

Great War project

Acting director of BBC Vision Roger Mosey is also heavily involved in the WWI programming plans, which will include an in-house documentary fronted by Jeremy Paxman exploring the impact of the war on Britain.

Mosey is also working with the EBU, the alliance of European public service media organisations, to potentially feed in centenary coverage from Germany, France and Russia. It is hoped this will help the BBC tell the story of the war from different perspectives.

Van Klaveren was part of the temporary BBC News management team - put in place after the Savile scandal to deal with issues relating to the late Jim’ll Fix It host - that approved Newsnight’s erroneous report on Lord McAlpine

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