Life

TV review: Colourised film brings out the humanity of the destruction of the Great War

Billy Foley

Billy Foley

Billy has almost 30 years’ experience in journalism after leaving DCU with a BAJ. He has worked at the Irish Independent, Evening Herald and Sunday Independent in Dublin, the Cork-based Evening Echo and the New Zealand Herald. He joined the Irish News in 2000, working as a reporter and then Deputy News Editor. He has been News Editor since 2007

Colourised image from Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old. (C) IWM - Photographer: Still
Colourised image from Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old. (C) IWM - Photographer: Still Colourised image from Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old. (C) IWM - Photographer: Still

They Shall Not Grow Old, BBC 2, Sunday, 9.30pm

It shouldn’t make that much difference, but Peter Jackson’s colourised film of the troops at the first world war was incredibly powerful.

The Lord Of The Rings director took interviews from soldiers and played it over the newly vivid images of them fighting and playing. All you could think about was how many of them were about to get killed or maimed in this hideous war.

They Shall Not Grow Old was the culmination of a day of programmes to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, when the British and French agreed terms with the Germans.

Around 20 million had died, and unlike the second world war, most people struggle to understand what it was about.

The day of television mostly concentrated on the lost, with the British commemoration in London and the French hosting all the other combatant nations in Paris.

Out of all the millions, the figure that stuck with me was from Dan Snow on a visit to Accrington in Lancashire.

As the war started in 1914, around 1,000 men packed the local church for a service of protection as they prepared to be shipped to the trenches of France and Belgium. It was regarded as the smallest town in Britain where an entire battalion had volunteered.

Four years later and only 150 had returned.

***

Extreme Everest, Channel 4, Sunday at 9.30pm

There was a decent programme waiting to get out of Extreme Everest but other things seem to get in the way.

Partially, it seemed to be because it didn’t know if it was a show about former special forces soldier Ant Middleton, about the wonders of Everest or the dangers of the climb.

It ended up being a disappointing mishmash of all three.

Middleton, who was one of the lead characters in SAS - Who Dares Wins, is an interesting character. His father died when he was four, but a dispute in the family meant he wasn’t allowed to go the funeral and it is clear this pain remains with him.

We later learnt that he hasn’t spoken to his mother in years and is effectively alone with his wife and children.

For 15 years the British army was his family and Middleton is now trying to create a life as a television presenter, as a cross between the derring do of Bear Grylls and authenticity of Guy Martin.

His Everest climb was certainly gritty. He ran into the now infamous queues on the world’s highest mountain, where dozens of inexperienced climbers pack the mountain with their expensive guides.

At one point after summiting, Middleton had a two hour wait to get down the Hillary step and begin his descent. He almost didn’t make it and suffered snow blindness in one eye and frostbite on his toes.

****

Nolan Live/Claire Byrne Live, BBC 1 and RTE 1, Monday at 10.40pm

Nolan Live has surely set back the prospects of a united Ireland.

Southerners have always been wary of those strange, argumentative types from the north.

Well, imagine what the RTE audience made of Nolan and his guests as they bellowed at each other on a visit to Dublin. Even Claire Byrne was forced to joke about how sensible the Belfast studio was, where she was the host.

The concept was a terrible one. RTE current affairs presenter Claire Byrne would travel to Belfast to discuss Brexit while Nolan took his motley crew to Dublin.

There was an embarrassing meeting in the hills above Newry, where the two presenters shook hands and gazed over the border at Carlingford Lough. And it went downhill from there.