You Brits have a big one-up on us in this category, as a great deal of fine production never makes it's way over here to the colonies. I think the best we've had by far has been "The Great War And The Shaping Of The Twentieth Century".

Leo Mckerns 1976 BBC documentary "The Battle of The Somme" as to be tops for me . Managed to to tape it second time around in 86

Chris

Yes, Chris, hope springs eternal that it will ever air over here.

I would agree that Malcolm Brown's documentary with Leo McKern as the presenter was an excellent piece of work and in terms of the Somme probably hasn't ever been surpassed. It was last shown on British TV in 1991, and despite attempts to get it shown in 2006, it sadly rests in the BBC archives.

I suspect there will be few here who remember it, but 'A Game of Ghosts' which was shown in the late 80s about a group of Great War veterans has always been one of my favourites, and that has only ever been aired once, sadly. If memory serves me right it was an ITV production in the days when that channel actually made quality programmes...

My favourite would have to be the 'For King & Empire' series.

My favourite, for all its worth:

www.quicksilverscreen.com

Click: documentaries

Click: a to z list

Scroll down to: Battle Of The Somme

Either watch it on-line, or download it to your desktop. Free.

Cheers

Dave

For the last couple of years I have been trying to remember the name of this programme, 'A Game of Ghosts'.
I'd describe it to someone, in conversation and be blowed if I could remember its title.
I think it was a Granada production .
You have just relieved me of a great weight . One of those things you know you saw, and no-one else seems to know of. I did record it but at some point it got chewed up and discarded.

This might be a good time for the Beeb/Granada (or whoever they are now) to be given a nudge, with the passing of WW1 out of living memory.

Dick

Away from the Western Front , my favourite would have to be "Gelbolu", (Gallipoli)
by the Turkish director Tolga Ornek.

Released about 2006

Peter

Agree about the Brown/McKern Somme one. A Game Of Ghosts was also excellent as was one about the Christmas Truce- was it called Peace In No Mans Land with interviews with veterans, one who always sticks in my mind was Graham Williams. The Testimony Films production on the women who served was also very good.

Michelle

I remember 'A Game of Ghosts' was very good. Would have been towards the end of the 80s as I recorded it with my first top loader video player! But, just like Dick, my recording got chewed up years ago. The 'Peace in No Man's Land' was around 1981 and also featured a veteran called Leslie Walkington whose memoir is entitled 'Twice in a Lifetime' (1980). He enlisted into the QWR in Aug 1914 and was then commissioned 2nd Lt in the Lincolns (Nov 1915). He witnessed the Christmas Truce and wrote memorably about it. He later transfered to the MGC. From memory he was a Major in WW2 and was involved in rescuing troops from Dunkirk.

The Lost Battlefields

http://www.cefbooks.ca/Code/DVDMenu.html

as all the others were covered, this battle was not.