ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

World War One: Across The UK

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ programming across the UK marking the centenary of World War One.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ English Regions, ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Scotland, ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Wales, ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Northern Ireland

World War One At ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ is an ambitious, large-scale project that will bring more than a thousand powerful stories to life – all linked to specific places across the UK – in a way never told before.

It will uncover surprising stories about familiar neighbourhoods where the wounded were treated, major scientific developments happened, prisoners of war were held and where heroes are buried.

In what will be a unique broadcasting event, 1,400 stories (100 stories from each of eleven ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ regions, and the three ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Nations) will feature on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ regional TV and Local Radio in England, as well as on national programmes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, starting in early 2014. The stories will also appear online to complement the broadcasts and to ensure the stories will live on for years to come.

To help unearth and bring these original wartime accounts to life, IWM (Imperial War Museums) is working together with the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ in a partnership that will span the World War One Centenary.

World War One At ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ will explore personal stories of how families were torn apart and how they faced the challenges brought by the war, as well as accounts of the vastly important role women played. There will also be a diverse range of voices reflecting the many soldiers who came to Britain from overseas.

At the heart of World War One At ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ, project partners ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Learning will create eight large-scale inspirational Great War events which will take place throughout the UK, reflecting the dramatic impact the war had on local families and communities.

Drawing on a wealth of ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ productions specially commissioned for the centenary and led by well-known ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ faces, each event will offer a unique opportunity to understand more about the war. Using a combination of hands-on activities and thought-provoking performances, including music and drama, each event will reflect the national commemoration and offer a uniquely local perspective on the impact of the war.

The project is also supported by academics funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, an organisation which aims to increase the impact of arts and humanities research.

SM/NL

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cymru

One hundred stories in Welsh, from 100 places across Wales, reflecting life in 1914-1918 as well as 2014-18, will be broadcast on radio and online as five-to-eight-minute packages within daytime strand programmes as part of World War One At ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ. The series will capture a ‘did you know?’ view of places in Wales, featuring ‘gardd Glandwr’ (a garden mentioned in a poem written by Cynan while serving in the Dardanelles), a granite quarry, a Masonic remembrance hall, and a room where women met to knit socks for local soldiers.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Wales - 100 x 5-8 minutes.

SM2

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Ulster/Foyle

One hundred stories from across the island of Ireland – North and South – will tell the unique story of Ireland’s war through the places and people that took part or were affected.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Northern Ireland - 100 x 2-5 minutes.

UC

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland

Scotland suffered proportionately the highest number of casualties among the home nations in the war, which was to have a profound and lasting effect on the country. Personal stories from locations around the length and breadth of Scotland reveal fresh and surprising insight.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland - 100 x 5 minutes.

JG2

Ireland's Great War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One Northern Ireland

Half a million Irishmen fought in World War One. Twenty per cent never came home. Until now, their stories have been hidden behind politics and division. But finally, Ireland – North and South – celebrates its forgotten heroes.

In the 15 years since the peace process, as it has become more acceptable to tackle the myths and legends behind Irish society, new and incredible stories have started to emerge – stories of unity, of bravery and of forgotten sacrifice. Coinciding with the massive interest in genealogy and family history, people across communities have been delving into their personal histories, digging up family stories, and tackling their own myths.

A 360 production - 1x60 minutes.

UC

My Great-Grandad’s Great War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One Northern Ireland

My Great-Grandad’s Great War brings to life, for the first time ever, the full story of the Great War experience of the Irish people in a raw and deeply personal way.

Five famous faces of Irish extraction explore the extraordinary experiences of their great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers across 1914-18. Each programme features one family story, offering a fascinating human insight into the many facets of complex social history in Ireland during the dying days of the Empire.

But each also casts fresh light in an accessible, entertaining way into the story of a country in conflict with itself and the dilemmas of identity which became complex and entrenched in those tumultuous years. Woven together, the series delivers a surprising, gripping and challenging re-imagining of the very different histories successive generations have been taught. It does so via what people relate most closely to in Northern Ireland: family.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Northern Ireland.

UC

With Love From The Front

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Ulster/Foyle

This moving series features poignant letters from the front line that express the different forms of love – married, parental, sibling – expressed between those serving and those at home. The letters have been selected from various literary and public record sources and are introduced and dramatised by actors.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Northern Ireland (tbc in development) – 30 x 3 minutes.

UC



The Man Who Shot The Great War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One Northern Ireland

This landmark documentary, featuring a Belfast soldier’s remarkable – and previously unseen – photographs and diary from World War One, gives a unique insight into how Ulstermen lived and died during their epic struggles on the fields of France and Flanders.

A Double Band Film - 1 x 60 minutes.

UC

Our Place In The War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Ulster/Foyle

This series of live and pre-recorded location reports follows the timeline of the war from significant places, with archive news and other audio. The series will run primarily on the Saturday magazine programme Your Place And Mine with selected self-contained packages available for repeat elsewhere in the schedule.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Northern Ireland - 24 x 5 minutes.

UC

And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland

Ricky Ross presents the story of a Borders businessman who helped a generation of Australians come to terms with one of the bitterest campaigns of World War One – the battle for Gallipoli.

Peebles-born Eric Bogle had bounced from job to job before emigrating and finding business success in Australia. That country provided opportunities he’d never been able to find at home, yet his love of folk music resulted in him packing it all in for a career as a singer-songwriter. This seemingly rash decision would lead to Bogle writing one of the most celebrated songs ever to come out of his adopted homeland.

Taking the form of a traditional Scottish ballad, And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda directly addresses Australia’s conflicted relationship to its wartime past. It’s perhaps a perspective that only an outsider could properly address and one that has attracted over 40 cover versions from artists including Joan Baez, The Pogues and Christy Moore.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland - 1 x 28 minutes.

JG2

Ballad Of The Unknown Soldier

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland

Ricky Ross writes and sings the Ballad Of The Unknown Soldier, the story of a powerful human idea. An anonymous body transformed into a symbol of all the nameless victims of war, the idea of the unknown soldier emerged from the mass carnage of the American Civil War. In the years after World War One, in response to the massive sense of loss and the tragic fact that thousands of bodies lay unidentified, the Unknown Soldier became the subject of tributes, graves and memorials across Europe.

Ricky also hears from families who never recovered the bodies of their loved ones, and visits the tombs of unknown soldiers in London and France.

The moving story is told through specially composed songs, and the documentary looks at how an idea was transformed into a national form of respect, grief and commemoration in the years after the Great War.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland - 1 x 28 minutes.

JG2

The Photograph/An Dealbh

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Nan Gàidheal

An Dealbh (The Photograph) is a documentary feature based on a photograph of a group of nine Aberdeen University students – Lewis men who served with the Gordons. Their lives were intertwined through their upbringing, their student days, and their war. Their stories are told through the diaries and letters of two diarists in the photograph: Murdo Murray, who survived the war, and Murdo MacIver, who did not.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland/Radio Nan Gàidheal - 1 x 60 minutes.

HM

Diary Of World War One

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland brings the real life experience of World War One to listeners through readings of diaries and letters by Scots who took part in the war.

The series draws from a wide range of diaries and personal correspondence held at the National Library of Scotland – from the diaries of Field Marshall Earl Haig, the most famous – and controversial – Scottish protagonist of the war, directing action from the sidelines, to ordinary soldiers such as Lance Corporal George Ramage of the Gordon Highlanders heading over the top in the trenches, as well as the voices of conscientious objectors. The personal papers provide a rich and very personal narrative of World War One.

This archive trail takes listeners around the world, from the iconic trenches of France to Africa, the Middle East and of course the high seas battles like Jutland, and also provides a fascinating insight into social divisions within Scottish society at the time.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland - 2 x 28 minutes.

JG2

Eòrpa – HMS Timbertown

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ALBA

A hundred Lewis men were among 1,500 British interned in Holland at HMS Timbertown in Groningen – so-called because they were serving in the First Royal Naval Brigade. They had been assisting the Belgian army against German troops and, during their retreat, their escape route was cut off. Commodore Wilfred Henderson crossed the frontier into Holland with three of his battalions and they were interned in Groningen.

This camp was unusual as internees were allowed to study navigation and other subjects, sit exams and even to go on furlough. Those who were interned in the camp – which was demolished in 1958 – have died but there is a photographic archive. The programme takes some family members of those who were interned back to the site of the camp. The nine men who died while interned are buried there, and three of these are Lewis men.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Gàidhlig - 1 x 30 minutes.

JG2

The Handsome Lads/Na Gillean Grinn

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ALBA

The Handsome Lads is a documentary about the death of Locheport man Simon MacQuarrie – the first Uist man to be killed in World War One – and how the horror of the Ypres battlefield affected his island community.

Celebrated Uist bard Dòmhnall Ruadh Choruna – a close friend of MacQuarrie – composed the poem Dh’fhalbh na Gillean Grinn / The Handsome Lads Have Gone, a harrowing account of trench warfare at Ypres which lists MacQuarrie in the roll call of the dead. This documentary addresses loss and the continued and tragic impact the Great War had on an island community.

A Bees Nees Media Limited production - 1 x 60 minutes.

JG2

The Battlefield/Sìnt’ Sa Bhlàr

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio nan Gàidheal

Neil Macaulay, formerly of the Seaforths, and Donald Martin make a very personal pilgrimage to visit the graves of relatives buried at Ypres and Passchendaele.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland/Radio nan Gàidheal - 2 x 30 minutes.

HM

The School That Went To War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland

This five-part series sees the Great War through the fresh eyes of Scottish school pupils who set out to track the lives of soldiers from their home community. In this ambitious multi-platform project, ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland helps pupils find out how their local community experienced World War One.

Through research of army records and newspaper cuttings; visiting local sites linked to war activity; reading diaries and discovering memorabilia through conversations with relatives who remember stories told by their grandparents; and questioning historians, the pupils piece together a sense of what the war was like and how it affected their local community.

This project will work closely with ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Learning to provide blogs and audio diaries, upload documents and memorabilia, and access records and information for other schools wishing to embark on a similar journey or use the programmes as part of their curriculum.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland - 5 x 28 minutes.

JG2

Shinty Heroes/Curaidhean Na Camanachd

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ALBA

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ALBA will be showing two programmes paying tribute to shinty’s sporting heroes, many of whom paid the ultimate sacrifice. They feature music along with a visual trip through the 117 years of shinty’s competitive championship history.

The programmes draw on the Shinty’s Heroes event which took place at the Nevis Centre in Fort William, led by musical director Gary Innes and wordsmith Hugh Dan MacLennan.

The first half of the event revolved around the impact of World War One on shinty-playing areas. Hugh Dan details the exploits of Highland heroes at battles such as Festubert in 1915 through a combination of wartime and sporting images and personal reflections. The unique success of the Lovat and Beauly teams who allegedly combined to win the 1913 Camanachd Cup features in the documentary, which airs on 27 December 2013, and the concert highlights from the Shinty’s Heroes event will transmit in an hour-long special on 4 January 2014.

A Bees Nees Media Limited production - 1 x 30 minutes / 1 x 60 minutes.

JG2

Weekly War Briefing/Seachdain Sa Chogadh

Radio nan Gàidheal

This portfolio of programmes will run over approximately four years. Using ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio nan Gàidheal’s eye-witness archive recordings, as well as related song and prose pieces, together with newspaper archive and new recordings, the Weekly War Briefing explores many aspects of World War One, providing a timeline and weekly digest over four years of the events. Other programmes from the archives of the times will also be re-broadcast over the four-year marker period.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions Scotland/Radio nan Gàidheal - 222 x 10 minutes.

HM

Small Hands In A Big War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ALBA

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ ALBA is a partner in this major European coproduction of the first ever television series about World War One for children and teens. Each episode tells the story of a different child in a different country, and how the war changed their lives. It also covers a specific topic such as propaganda and honour. World War One was the first war captured on film. The series uses these films to show the war in a way that is easy to understand. This includes taking the black-and-white films and restoring colour to them.

The series tells the children’s stories from their diaries and letters in dramatic reconstruction, but to really illustrate what life was like for the children of this war, the series will show something more. It will use the toys the children had – their dolls, their tin soldiers, their model trains, their teddy bears – in the reconstructions to illustrate what the children hoped, dreamed and feared.

LOOKS Film (Germany) and Solus Productions (local Gaelic versioning) - 8 x 25 minutes.

JG2

The Writers’ Propaganda Bureau

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Scotland

This documentary reveals how Scotland’s leading writers were recruited by the War Propaganda Bureau to persuade men to enlist for the Front. Soon after the outbreak of World War One, Charles Masterman, Head of the Bureau, wrote to some of Scotland’s leading writers to discuss ways of best promoting the country’s interests during the war. The propaganda produced by these men resulted in hundreds of thousands of men joining the British Army; large numbers of them were killed.

John Buchan was recruited to write an ongoing history of the war and was responsible for writing pamphlets and articles for newspapers. Masterman also recruited Arthur Conan Doyle but he had a change of heart following the death of his son Kingsley, which caused him to develop a new obsession with spiritualism. Another writer from the bureau, Rudyard Kipling, had a similar experience when his only son, Jack, died in the Battle of Loos aged 18.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Scotland - 1 x 28 minutes.

JG2

Welsh Towns At War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One Wales

To mark the anniversary of the outbreak of World War One, former Wales rugby player and ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Wales presenter Eddie Butler returns for two special war-time programmes of Welsh Towns. In the programmes, Eddie explores the hidden history of distinct Welsh communities.

One of the towns Eddie visits is Swansea, where he delves into the stories of the legendary ‘Swansea Pals’ who played a key part in the capture of Mametz Wood. These and many more stories will be told through Welsh Towns At War, using a mix of archive film and stills alongside letters, postcards and other memorabilia as well as personal tales of these towns’ role in the Great War.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Wales - 2 x 30 minutes.

SM2

Cymry 24

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cymru

The documentary series will provide a snapshot of a cross-section of young Welsh people in 2014. Cymry 24 will capture 24 hours in the life of young people in Wales, their interests, their hopes and fears – as well as their dreams and aspirations. The series will also draw parallels with young people in 1914, their experiences and hopes, which will give a real historical perspective to the portrayal of 2014.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Wales - tbc x 27 minutes.

SM2

The Welsh And World War One/Cymry’r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cymru

This landmark documentary series offers a Welsh perspective on World War One – including the stories of soldiers, politicians, religious leaders and families, as well as pacifists and artists. The series includes veterans’ recollections of life in the trenches, poignant recordings made during the 1960s and 1970s, and assesses the contribution of politicians such as David Lloyd George, and the recruiting drives led by powerful clergy such as John Williams Brynsiencyn. The programmes also capture the real sense of loss that families feel, even today, as they visit the graves of their relatives. The documentaries aim to combine a historical perspective with a personal and present response to the events of 1914-18.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Wales - 6 x 30 minutes.

SM2

The Greatest Welshman Never Heard Of

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales

In this new comedy mockumentary series for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales, the fictional life and times of wartime journalist Aneurin Davies is celebrated at long last. Aneurin Davies was one of the most brilliant wartime journalists of his era, yet his name is relatively unknown – arguably the Greatest Welshman You’ve Never Heard Of.

Through Aneurin’s archive recordings of the war effort at home, Radio Wales listeners meet the extraordinary people of Wales and their new and experimental ideas for fighting the Germans. From variety entertainers keeping morale high to the excitement of the ‘Lloyd George Waltz’ that swept through village fêtes, leading to a handful of serious injuries, third degree burns and a rise in ‘fête brain-fever’ – Aneurin Davies captured it all!

The producers are Robin Morgan and Dan Kiss.

TBC - 4 x 30 minutes.

SM2

The Great War Live

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales

This ambitious multi-dimensional project brings together stories from across Wales through radio, online and social media, tapping into newspapers, archives, story tellers and museums. The Great War Live offers audiences ‘as live’ commentary on the Great War as it happens.

The short daily bulletins use the words of Welsh soldiers, families, regiments and reports from the home front, played on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales programmes. Inviting audience participation, The Great War Live brings together a rich mix of voices from archive, actor-voiced extracts from letters, newspaper reports, debates, poetry and music – all telling the story of Welsh involvement in the war.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Productions, Wales - tbc x 2-3 minutes.

SM2

Wales And The Great War Today

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales

A hundred years since the beginning of the Great War, how can people identify with the experiences of those who lived through it? Through the eyes of those who have experienced war in Iraq and Afghanistan today, this series explores new ways of understanding the Great War by identifying with the emotions of those who experienced the horrors of the war a century ago.

Exploring what happened between 1914 and 1918, six people who have a connection with war today – from a combatant, a medic and a cleric, to a bereaved partner and a peace campaigner – will each present a programme about the experiences of those that correspond to them 100 years ago.

A Silin Cyf production - 6 x 30 minutes.

SM2

The Man They Couldn’t Kill – Frank Richards And The Great War

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales

Frank Richards, a former miner from Blaina, survived the most terrible odds. On continuous service on the Western Front throughout World War One, he saw action in nearly all the major battles and lived to tell the tale. He served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the campaigns that sum up the horror of the Great War – including the retreat from Mons, and the battles of the Somme. And he wrote down his experiences in a soldier’s voice – graphic, cynical, down-to-earth, and often grimly humorous, complete with honest descriptions of fist-fighting, drunkenness, and the brothels behind the front lines.

This programme rediscovers Richards’ autobiography, Old Soldiers Never Die – now almost forgotten, but a bestseller when originally published in 1933. Richards wrote his view from the trenches from a rank-and-file soldier’s point of view. Despite long service with the Royal Welch, he refused promotion and never rose above the rank of private – although by the time World War One ended he’d been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal for his acts of bravery. As well as the documentary on Richards, to be transmitted as a special ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Wales Arts Show, five readings from his autobiography will be broadcast around Christmas 2014.

A P+E production - 1 x 30 minutes / 5 x 15 minutes.

SM2

Stiwdio

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cymru

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Cymru’s regular arts programme will broadcast at least two special World War One programmes. The first programme follows the photographer Aled Hughes as he creates an exhibition about Mametz Wood for the National Library of Wales. Aled has visited the area many times, establishing good relationships with local people. The programme will capture the story of Mametz Wood as well as Aled’s personal pilgrimage within his exhibition.

The second programme considers the contribution made by art collectors the Davies Sisters of Gregynnog, in relation to World War One. The programme follows the sisters’ experiences as Red Cross nurses in northern France. It will refer to the nearly 100 refugee artists from Belgium who were given refuge by the sisters.

TBC - 2 x 30 minutes.

SM2