0:00:00 > 0:00:06War has been a staple of British television since...well, since the war.
0:00:06 > 0:00:12It's always made news, of course, but it's also given us some of our most iconic dramas.
0:00:12 > 0:00:13So this is Colditz.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17It's inspired some of our funniest sitcoms,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21and it's been a battleground for the big beasts of television drama.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26There is no excuse for the murder and mayhem and slaughter
0:00:26 > 0:00:28of young people in the First World War.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30But some wars have to be fought,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33and my play said, "This is one and this is why."
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Tonight we look at how British telly has gone to war.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41What explains our fascination with the Third Reich?
0:00:41 > 0:00:42We were the good guys,
0:00:42 > 0:00:46and the other side were the bad guys, and that makes us all feel much, much better.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50What's it like to see your soldiering remade for television?
0:00:50 > 0:00:54They did capture the spirit and the immediacy of the time.
0:00:54 > 0:01:00And what's the dividing line between television drama and historical fact?
0:01:00 > 0:01:04I think the central problem is that the needs of the TV industry
0:01:04 > 0:01:07are fundamentally incompatible with good history.
0:01:07 > 0:01:14From the trenches of the Somme to the battle for Basra, this is what happens when TV goes to war.
0:01:17 > 0:01:23It looks like it could be the beginning of the much promised shock and awe campaign.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27'War and television have always had an often explosive relationship.'
0:01:27 > 0:01:29I counted them all out...
0:01:29 > 0:01:34'On the one hand, war offers many of the things the television writer needs.'
0:01:34 > 0:01:36There's obviously great drama there,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39great stories to be told, great stories of heroism and bravery,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43great stories of cruelty, great stories of anguish and pain.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47It's got suspense, it's got conflict, it's got action,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51but I think more than that, it's part of the narrative we tell ourselves.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55After all, Britain, in a sense, sees itself as a warrior nation.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59But if war has what television drama needs, television drama still wants more.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03For example, you have to have the arc of character.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06There has to be a sort of moral metamorphosis,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10the coward is redeemed and the cynic is reduced to tears.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12I mean, all of these things happening
0:02:12 > 0:02:14under the pressure of the moment.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19Now, those are certain formulae which are almost unbreakable
0:02:19 > 0:02:24in the dramatic reproduction. They've got nothing to do with history at all.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30The ambivalent relationship was evident from the start.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34The birth of television was directly linked to the war effort.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Public broadcast television in this country, the first in the world, started in 1936,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40just three years short of the war.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44But the race to invent television and get the technology out and about
0:02:44 > 0:02:47and the service started was sort of accelerated
0:02:47 > 0:02:51because the development of television also aided the development of radar.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55People knew the war was coming, and they knew how important radar would be during the war,
0:02:55 > 0:03:00so that's one of the reasons why so much money and effort was put into rushing television into operation.
0:03:00 > 0:03:07But when war broke out, television was among the first casualties, taken off air in case its signals
0:03:07 > 0:03:10led German bombers to the heart of London.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14In times of war, it seemed TV couldn't entirely be trusted.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16The plug was pulled just before
0:03:16 > 0:03:21the outbreak of war in 1939, and it didn't come back on air until June 1946,
0:03:21 > 0:03:25so people would have followed the progress of the war in as much as they were able to,
0:03:25 > 0:03:29because there was heavy censorship, they would have followed it
0:03:29 > 0:03:33on newsreels usually, cinema newsreels, or of course on the radio.
0:03:33 > 0:03:34Television had a problem.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38World War II had been nothing if not cinematic.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42The big stories belonged on the big screen.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43Some very good films
0:03:43 > 0:03:47were made in the 1950s about the Second World War,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50partly because all the people who starred in the films,
0:03:50 > 0:03:55the likes of Richard Todd and Jack Hawkins, they had all been in the war, and it showed.
0:03:55 > 0:04:01When you made a movie like The Cruel Sea, the ships were real, the people were real and so on.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04So although those '50s films were absurdly nationalistic,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07The Dambusters, Reach For The Sky and the rest of it,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09they did bring something real to the party.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13So how could television capture the reality of war
0:04:13 > 0:04:16on a small budget and a small screen?
0:04:16 > 0:04:20It's very difficult for TV to depict war
0:04:20 > 0:04:23in all its horror in any really realistic way
0:04:23 > 0:04:27unless you're Steven Spielberg with Band Of Brothers.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30To do it with a smaller budget is very, very hard.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32If you're going to show war on TV,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34you have to do it in a different way.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36You have to...
0:04:36 > 0:04:38You have to be more intimate.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Rudolph Cartier is the great Austrian director who worked for the BBC
0:04:46 > 0:04:53in the '50s and '60s, an incredible talent, and one of his most famous works is Stalingrad in 1963,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55which looks at the terrible siege.
0:04:55 > 0:05:01It takes the epic story and concentrates on just a handful of characters to see
0:05:01 > 0:05:03the terrible events through their eyes.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Sorry, mate, but this is Stalingrad.
0:05:07 > 0:05:13'You're not relying on an epic scale, the like of which we see in the cinema.'
0:05:13 > 0:05:15You're relying on just great acting,
0:05:15 > 0:05:22very clever directing and good writing, which are, of course, the holy trinity of television.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25A thousand fires are burning outside.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28They stink of smouldering bones and burning flesh.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Every square yard of this land is covered with the corpses of our soldiers...
0:05:32 > 0:05:37'It's a harrowing play, it's very, very well done, even though it's shot on a shoestring.'
0:05:37 > 0:05:40So when you see an invading tank, you don't actually see the tank.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43What you see is the tank driver's point of view
0:05:43 > 0:05:46from the slit as he drives into the war zones.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49He uses tricks to get over the scope.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Now, I think, that wouldn't work.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55We demand to see on screen the whole tapestry.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Television would struggle with the spectacle of war till Spielberg,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03but the other response to army life was simply to laugh.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08Sitcom would emerge as one of the new medium's most popular genres.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Here, television could compete with cinema
0:06:11 > 0:06:15in a way that was both affordable and allowable.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19I think it's permissible to make jokes about the Second World War,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22the kind of jokes you see John Cleese doing in Fawlty Towers,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25marching around that hotel, or the kind of humour
0:06:25 > 0:06:28'that Spike Milligan mimed through his career.'
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Fall out! No, no...
0:06:31 > 0:06:33'Because the Second World War'
0:06:33 > 0:06:35produced a lot of humour of its own.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Even Churchill talked about Hitler as Herr Schicklgruber, didn't he?
0:06:39 > 0:06:44You know, that song about Hitler only having one ball, that didn't start in the 1970s playgrounds.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46On your feet, at the double!
0:06:46 > 0:06:48You're in the army now!
0:06:48 > 0:06:53Having defeated an enemy famous for having absolutely no sense of humour,
0:06:53 > 0:06:57what better and more economical way for television to enjoy our victory?
0:06:57 > 0:06:59The Army Game is about national service,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03and it's about a group of recruits who, in a slightly kind of
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Bilko-ish way, are all brought together,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09'and they're all different character types.
0:07:09 > 0:07:15'None of them, I think, would actually be suitable for combat.'
0:07:15 > 0:07:19Now, I want this place spick, span and spotless, understand?
0:07:19 > 0:07:23'The Army Game established the ground rules for the war-based sitcom.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26'It should keep its distance from any actual fighting
0:07:26 > 0:07:30'and, being British, it should be more about class than war.'
0:07:30 > 0:07:33The army does lend itself to comedy,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36because it's got a natural structure and hierarchy,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38and where you have a hierarchy,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42you have a class system and conflict, and where you have conflict within that, you have comedy, I think.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45I say there, you men!
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Hello, it's a boy scout!
0:07:47 > 0:07:50'People are meeting people that they haven't met before,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53'and that's when you start to get the stereotype characteristics,'
0:07:53 > 0:07:56so you had the grunts, the soldiers,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00against the sergeant major and the upper orders.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04So there was a definite divide, and that was the same in Private's Progress in the cinema
0:08:04 > 0:08:06and the first of the Carry On films.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09It's because William Hartnell is in this film
0:08:09 > 0:08:14that he gets cast as the leading man of Carry On Sergeant, the first of the Carry On films,
0:08:14 > 0:08:20so actually the whole of the Carry On humour really is rooted in the barrack room.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21Is that so?
0:08:21 > 0:08:26'Television was at ease with the nuances of army life, but by now,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30'Britain had a new enemy, and television writers a new challenge.'
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Here was a war whose outcome was far from certain,
0:08:36 > 0:08:42which hadn't actually been declared, but which seemed no laughing matter.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Western intelligence started to focus on the Soviet Union as a threat
0:08:46 > 0:08:49primarily after the Second World War, really.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52They were certainly our main targets
0:08:52 > 0:08:55during the '60s, the '70s and on into the '80s.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00There were moments of sort of bomb hysteria, which were extremely strong.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Obviously, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, we didn't know
0:09:03 > 0:09:06whether the world was going to cease to exist in a few days' time.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09'Having struggled to portray a war it had missed,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13'how could television depict a war that hadn't yet happened?
0:09:13 > 0:09:16'The answer was all too convincingly.'
0:09:16 > 0:09:229:16am, a single megaton nuclear missile overshoots Manston Airfield in Kent
0:09:22 > 0:09:26and airbursts six miles from this position.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31- Duck!- Aaaah!
0:09:31 > 0:09:38Peter Watkins' The War Game was about a nuclear war, you know, in Britain, the effect of nuclear war,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42and of course it was an absolutely terrifying film, even if you see it today.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45SCREAMING
0:09:48 > 0:09:5212 seconds later, the shock front arrives.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55'With its voiceover, vox pops and shaky camera,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59'The War Game blurred the line between documentary and drama.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03'It created a powerful new weapon for television to go to war.'
0:10:03 > 0:10:08And it must have resonated perhaps even more in the '60s, because people watching it in the '60s,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13many of them would remember the Blitz, they would have remembered the V1s and V2s,
0:10:13 > 0:10:18so what you had was this sort of terror compounded to the nth degree.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20People, if they had felt powerless in the Blitz,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23they would have felt completely powerless, of course, in The War Game.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27'Its very success presented BBC with a problem.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31'Having made a masterpiece, could it actually be shown?'
0:10:31 > 0:10:36I did not think the BBC could take the responsibility
0:10:36 > 0:10:39for the possible effect on, for instance,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43the old, the lonely, the mentally disturbed
0:10:43 > 0:10:47watching the film in the privacy of their homes.
0:10:47 > 0:10:55'Scheduled for 20th anniversary of Hiroshima, The War Game wouldn't be broadcast for another 20 years.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00'Drama, documentary or both, it summed up the difficulties of putting war on the telly,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05'because it wasn't just the graphic images, it was the political subtext.'
0:11:05 > 0:11:08This...is nuclear war.
0:11:08 > 0:11:09'It was to do with banning the bomb,'
0:11:09 > 0:11:13it was to do with unilateral disarmament, but it was also
0:11:13 > 0:11:17a hidden indictment of the government, about what were they doing to protect
0:11:17 > 0:11:20the people of Britain in the case of a nuclear war?
0:11:20 > 0:11:26And the answer is, there's not a lot probably that could be done, and that was a very, very stark message.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29You know, really it was the endgame.
0:11:29 > 0:11:36If the realities of nuclear war were unbroadcastable, television retreated into a world of fantasy.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40For the rest of the decade, we got a kind of Cold War light
0:11:40 > 0:11:44as TV threw itself into the '60s spy boom.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48Well, obviously, spying was the Great Game,
0:11:48 > 0:11:50and again something of huge fascination
0:11:50 > 0:11:54because of its dramatic potential to television makers.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56Here was an exciting world of gadgets and glamour.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01No need for expensive battle scenes or even factual accuracy.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05No-one knew what the facts were in this silent war.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Until quite recently, there was almost no hard facts available,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12particularly about British intelligence.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16It wasn't really until, I suppose, the kind of late '80s that we started talking about things.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22So the world of spying has been open for the imagination of writers
0:12:22 > 0:12:25and television makers to fill up with what they liked.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Yeah, there was The Champions, there was any number of shows at that time.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37Even Thunderbirds tapped into that Cold War thing.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Yeah, Man From UNCLE, all those shows.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44SPECTRE, SMERSH, all those shadowy organisations, that was all about the Cold War.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45I used to love The Champions.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Alexandra Bastedo in front of that fountain.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52They were agents working for this organisation called Nemesis,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54based in Geneva in Switzerland.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59'Our enemies varied. They were sometimes the Chinese, they were the Russians.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01'They could be anybody at that time.'
0:13:01 > 0:13:03Commence phase one now.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Of course, because of political correctness,
0:13:07 > 0:13:12you can't make anybody a villain these days, because we're friendly with everybody,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15or at least maybe we are, maybe it's superficial, I don't know.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18All of those ITC series
0:13:18 > 0:13:22that start in the late '60s are intimately connected with the Cold War.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25In a way, they're television's answer to James Bond.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33In a few minutes, the world's two greatest powers are going to wipe themselves out.
0:13:33 > 0:13:39I laugh when I think of people doing lectures on these series, or seminars, because for us
0:13:39 > 0:13:44it was just work, and they were fun and, "He went that way,"
0:13:44 > 0:13:46'and waving guns around.'
0:13:46 > 0:13:48'I think they got everything wrong'
0:13:48 > 0:13:51if what you looking for is any kind of
0:13:51 > 0:13:55relation to reality, but what they were trying to do is entertain.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57The missiles have been launched!
0:13:57 > 0:13:59We've got to find the destruct switch!
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Well, at the time, one thought of all those series, Department S,
0:14:03 > 0:14:10The Avengers, as being lightweight, but in fact, erm...I mean, in real life,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14there was the possibility of problems with the Chinese and certainly the Russians.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17It's OK, Sharon, I've found it!
0:14:19 > 0:14:24My mother always said, you'll be very lucky if, in your lifetime, there isn't a Third World War.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Richard... It's all right!
0:14:31 > 0:14:35The Cold War had its attractions, but along with the agents of international communism,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39one old enemy simply refused to go away.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43The further from the war we got, the more powerful he seemed to become,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45at least in television's imagination.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Kommen Sie hier, Fraulein!
0:14:50 > 0:14:53The fascination, more with the Second World War than any other war,
0:14:53 > 0:14:59is because it represented a moment of decisive moral choice,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02and moral choice is the basic element in all human drama.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Most of the time with most wars, we're not sure
0:15:05 > 0:15:07whether they were a good thing or not.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10What is almost unique about the Second World War is we're
0:15:10 > 0:15:12pretty sure it was the good war.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15We were the good guys and the other side were the bad guys.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20And that makes us feel much better than it does about Afghanistan
0:15:20 > 0:15:23or Iraq or Korea or whatever you'd like to name.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26British troops were in action in the '70s
0:15:26 > 0:15:31but often against British citizens. And with the country in apparent decline,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35it left us yearning for a time when things seemed more black and white.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38As the war films of the '50s found a new home
0:15:38 > 0:15:40on the television of the '70s,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43television found a new way of delivering
0:15:43 > 0:15:46what its audience needed - escapism.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55Prison is fantastic for drama,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59because it throws together guys in a strange and unreal situation,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03but they have to rub along together and if it's a prison situation
0:16:03 > 0:16:06they're maybe thinking of getting out,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08so that's immediately fascinating.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Assuming that we can get through that window...
0:16:11 > 0:16:14The appeal of Colditz I think was the outwitting
0:16:14 > 0:16:16of the German prison guards.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18The plucky British, the very brave British,
0:16:18 > 0:16:23but also the ingenious British, and somehow the artisanal British.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26There you are with a coal shovel, you're digging yourself
0:16:26 > 0:16:30out of the Stalag. In other words, Britain's grit and determination
0:16:30 > 0:16:34and just practical common sense. You know, you do it with a tea-spoon.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37So there was all that, but put it all together
0:16:37 > 0:16:41with German officers who always look so horrendously scary on TV,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44then you've got something special.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Of course, the break-out star of Colditz wasn't a Brit,
0:16:47 > 0:16:53it was Major Horst Mohn - 1970s television's nastiest Nazi.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55So this is Colditz.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00They felt at the time that Colditz in the first series,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03in a sense, was too reasonable.
0:17:03 > 0:17:04Everybody was reasonable,
0:17:04 > 0:17:07everybody understood everybody else's position,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11everybody behaved as well as they could under the circumstances.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16It needed something, someone antagonistic.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24The attitude of Mohn was "Give me trouble and I will redefine
0:17:24 > 0:17:28"the word 'trouble' for you in a way you cannot begin to imagine,"
0:17:28 > 0:17:29May I see?
0:17:31 > 0:17:33If you're dressed in that uniform
0:17:33 > 0:17:37and striding about in jackboots, yes, there's an instant cliche
0:17:37 > 0:17:40that's available to you, this man is going to say,
0:17:40 > 0:17:46"Ve have vays of making you talk" and, "For you ze var is over,"
0:17:46 > 0:17:50so to try and produce something that's different,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53it's not the easiest trick in the world, but with Mohn, it worked.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55Bad luck, Mr Carter.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00The producer said, "We're going to arrange a viewing
0:18:00 > 0:18:04"of some film at the Imperial War Museum,"
0:18:04 > 0:18:08and I chose to have a look at the training of the youth movement,
0:18:08 > 0:18:14the complete cliche - golden haired, fit, strong, athletic, and social.
0:18:14 > 0:18:20Suddenly you understood, because you could see they acquired
0:18:20 > 0:18:24a notion of invincibility somewhere along the way.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26- Sit down.- Thank you, sir.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28There's one line I always remember,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33when the Kommandant, played by Bernard Hepton, says to Mohn,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36"You have actually met the Fuhrer?"
0:18:36 > 0:18:39- And he says... - He's a great man, sir.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42He's a wonderful man.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46And it kind of makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck
0:18:46 > 0:18:51because the whole concept of what, if you like, the collective
0:18:51 > 0:18:56German psyche was about, is sort of embodied in that.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02I hope you won't entertain any thoughts of escape from here,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05following in your father's footsteps.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10Because I can assure you, escape from Colditz is impossible!
0:19:12 > 0:19:15LAUGHTER
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Colditz created a new TV archetype that would be copied and parodied,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22crucially, it was a world where Britain was once more
0:19:22 > 0:19:25the underdog, and that struck a chord.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29I think Britain was suffering from a tremendous inferiority complex
0:19:29 > 0:19:32vis a vis Germany in industrial terms and technology terms and so forth.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35The German economy was speeding ahead
0:19:35 > 0:19:37and we were left badly in its wake.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42And there the attitude really was very much one of trying to emphasise that we won the war
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and how ghastly the Germans were.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49Here is your prison number. And the address to which letters should be sent.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51LAUGHTER
0:19:51 > 0:19:54For '70s television, the war was never over.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57We'd try not to mention it, but we just couldn't help ourselves!
0:19:57 > 0:19:59It's the little people, isn't it,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02when Hitler had the whole of Europe in his pocket,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04there was only one country that stood against him,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07and I think we are still proud of that.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12# Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler? #
0:20:12 > 0:20:17But the definitive response wasn't dramatic, it was comedic.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21Our finest hour became one of sitcom's funniest 30 minutes.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23Dad's Army is one of those series that has
0:20:23 > 0:20:26worked its way into the back of everyone's head.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29It wouldn't surprise me if they put "Don't tell him, Pike,"
0:20:29 > 0:20:31into the British Citizenship test.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40It's the warmth of the characters that's the crucial element.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42You empathise and you like them.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Every character in that show is funny and different.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51The moment I thought of writing Dad's Army was on the train
0:20:51 > 0:20:56and I thought, "I know what I'll do, I'll write a pilot."
0:20:56 > 0:21:03And I sat down when I got home and thought, "What do I know about?"
0:21:03 > 0:21:07I thought, I was in the Home Guard, it was tucked away in my brain
0:21:07 > 0:21:10and hadn't come out for years.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13I went to the library, Kensington Library,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16and I said to the girl there, the librarian,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20"Have you got any books on the Home Guard?"
0:21:20 > 0:21:23And she said, "What's that, then?"
0:21:23 > 0:21:26The Home Guard had been totally forgotten!
0:21:26 > 0:21:31# Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run! #
0:21:31 > 0:21:37So familiar is the show today, it's hard to think of it as edgy.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Yet the very idea provoked a flurry of memos.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43There was some anxiety about whether or not sending up
0:21:43 > 0:21:47the Home Guard was something the BBC should be doing.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51There was a faint nervousness.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55I mean, having worked at the BBC for 40 years,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58there's always a faint nervousness about everything.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03And because of these anxieties a prologue was appended to
0:22:03 > 0:22:07the beginning of the first episode, and all the characters
0:22:07 > 0:22:10are sitting there, but they're made up to look old.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14This is set in the late '60s, this is set in the middle of Harold Wilson's
0:22:14 > 0:22:16"I'm Backing Britain" campaign,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20and Captain Mainwaring is giving this speech
0:22:20 > 0:22:23about how maybe some people didn't
0:22:23 > 0:22:27take the Home Guard very seriously, but he has always backed Britain.
0:22:27 > 0:22:34I got into the habit of it in 1940, but then we all backed Britain.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39And what's odd about it is that that means the whole of Dad's Army is a flashback!
0:22:39 > 0:22:43I want maximum security, you understand? Maximum security.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Having established its patriotism, Dad's Army was free to celebrate
0:22:47 > 0:22:52our amateurism in the face of apparently overwhelming odds.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55Things were so desperate. There were adverts everywhere,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59"Join the Home Guard". And we all realised, the Germans were just over the water.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04Unlike the real Home Guard, Dad's Army did engage with the enemy,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07the results were memorable.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10In that fantastic episode where they're captured by the U-Boat crew,
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Philip Madoc who played the U-boat commander, he was actually quite sinister.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18It's a great episode, and it's remembered by everyone
0:23:18 > 0:23:20because of the fantastic exchange.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Your name will also go on the list.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24LAUGHTER
0:23:24 > 0:23:27- Vot is it?- Don't tell him, Pike. - Pike!
0:23:29 > 0:23:34Fantastic episode. But the point is that U-Boat crew was quite sinister.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36you looked at him and thought,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39"I wouldn't like to run up against him in a war situation."
0:23:39 > 0:23:43If the German army had landed in Britain, I'm terribly sorry
0:23:43 > 0:23:46to say that Captain Mainwaring and the rest
0:23:46 > 0:23:51wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds in front of Hitler's Wehrmacht,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54the most formidable fighting force the world has ever seen!
0:23:54 > 0:23:59But what is so moving, and what the writers of Dad's Army caught
0:23:59 > 0:24:04so brilliantly was the fact they were willing to die,
0:24:04 > 0:24:08however sillily and however incompetently in the face of that threat.
0:24:08 > 0:24:09And that's terribly moving.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13We have one invaluable weapon on our side.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15We have an unbreakable spirit to win.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23A bulldog tenacity that will help us to hang on while there's breath left in our bodies.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26You don't get that with Gestapos and jackboots.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29You get that by being British.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33I'll tell you the key to the success of Dad's Army.
0:24:33 > 0:24:39It roused people who'd forgotten all about the war
0:24:39 > 0:24:41to what was our greatest hour.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44So come on, Adolf - we're ready for you!
0:24:44 > 0:24:45CHEERING
0:24:45 > 0:24:48They used to take the mickey out of the Home Guard,
0:24:48 > 0:24:53but it was amazing, it was backs to the wall.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Nobody understands nowadays, because they can't.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Sitcom would take one step nearer the front line,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06as 'Allo 'Allo even found humour in occupied France.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08'Allo 'Allo was a much cleverer programme
0:25:08 > 0:25:11than it seems on the surface.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15The idea of an English guy pretending to be a French policeman,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18indicating his bad French by having him speak bad English
0:25:18 > 0:25:21is quite a complex idea which they pull off quite well.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25I was pissing by the door...
0:25:26 > 0:25:30'Allo 'Allo became one of the most popular sitcoms of the '80s...
0:25:30 > 0:25:33When I heard two shats.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40But it wasn't spoofing the War, so much as television's attitude to it.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Secret Army had already discovered the power of the Resistance.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Here were tales of wartime heroism,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50this time played deadly straight.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55Secret Army did bring across the heroism of the people
0:25:55 > 0:25:57who lived through that period.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02Those of us who write about occupied Europe are vary wary about
0:26:02 > 0:26:04the jokes about it because it was so serious.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07One has to remember in France where 'Allo 'Allo was set,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10tens of thousands of people were murdered in cold blood,
0:26:10 > 0:26:18by the Nazis, as hostages, or in reprisal for acts of resistance.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21There wasn't very much to laugh about in France.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Are you one of them?
0:26:23 > 0:26:26LAUGHTER
0:26:26 > 0:26:32It was very lonely on the Russian front.
0:26:32 > 0:26:40Even now, it's a brave decision to make these German soldiers warm and funny.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42A man from the Gestapo is here to see you.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Gestapo!
0:26:45 > 0:26:49There's no mention of the genocide and the atrocities in 'Allo 'Allo.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51"The programme 'Allo 'Allo is totally offensive."
0:26:51 > 0:26:53Mr Thomas also says:
0:26:53 > 0:26:57"To make a laugh-a-minute comedy of such an unmitigatedly grisly subject
0:26:57 > 0:26:58"is quite monstrous."
0:26:58 > 0:27:01I've never forgotten when I was editor of the Daily Telegraph
0:27:01 > 0:27:05and our TV correspondent came back from a television festival at which
0:27:05 > 0:27:08'Allo 'Allo had been shown, and he said, "The Germans loved it.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12"It was the first series they'd ever seen which made them
0:27:12 > 0:27:15"look like lovable idiots rather than absolute bastards."
0:27:15 > 0:27:19TV's fascination with the Second World War would continue
0:27:19 > 0:27:22to grow, but The Great War had fewer chroniclers.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25It was longer ago, of course,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29and perhaps also lacked that moment of decisive moral choice.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34Enter Percy Toplis, The Monocled Mutineer.
0:27:34 > 0:27:40I wanted to write, as I had done before, an anti-hero,
0:27:40 > 0:27:46who people are kind of horrified by
0:27:46 > 0:27:50but can't help falling in love with.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56This is something, for example, Yosser Hughes in The Boys From The Blackstuff,
0:27:56 > 0:28:02what Yosser Hughes did to people was despicable, but there was something
0:28:02 > 0:28:05about the heartbreak of his life that attracted people to him.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10I felt with Toplis, who clearly wasn't what anyone would
0:28:10 > 0:28:16describe as even a decent human being, there were qualities in him
0:28:16 > 0:28:24I admired because he saw the madness and the horror of what was going on
0:28:24 > 0:28:30and in his own difficult way realised the truth.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33- I shouldn't be here.- No. And I'm not going to die here!
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Another bloody lot. I don't believe it.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39What the hell are they sending more of them for?
0:28:39 > 0:28:41It's a bloody slaughter!
0:28:41 > 0:28:43The play marked a departure for Bleasdale -
0:28:43 > 0:28:48it was his first historical drama, his first adaptation...
0:28:48 > 0:28:51but he had a personal reason for getting involved.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54"These scripts are dedicated to George Bleasdale
0:28:54 > 0:28:58"who died a prisoner of war in France during the spring of 1917,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03"three months before his 10th child, my father, was born."
0:29:03 > 0:29:06I don't write dedications for nothing.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09The play told the story of a real First World War soldier,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11Percy Toplis.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14It centred on a real mutiny of British troops at Etaples.
0:29:14 > 0:29:17And it caused the mother of all rows.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19The Monocled Mutineer was brilliant,
0:29:19 > 0:29:24and the more brilliant for all the feathers it ruffled.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27There is inherent drama in war,
0:29:27 > 0:29:30but if you can do something in a portrayal of war
0:29:30 > 0:29:37that makes people question decision making, authority, the establishment,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39that can only be a good thing.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42They want you to obey. They want you to give in.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46They want you to stand there, "Yes, sir, no, sir, be sub whatsits."
0:29:46 > 0:29:50And you might as well throw yourself in front of the nearest whizz-bang
0:29:50 > 0:29:52because that is what they want and all.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55The Monocled Mutineer obviously caused controversy
0:29:55 > 0:29:59because if you are portraying a war, you're portraying a dedicated
0:29:59 > 0:30:02fighting force, everybody prepared to go over the top
0:30:02 > 0:30:06for their country, and this was about a mutiny.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08CHEERING
0:30:08 > 0:30:10'And it was obviously not something'
0:30:10 > 0:30:15that those in authority wanted to see and were very, very keen to decry it.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17Who are you? Tell me.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19Who are you?
0:30:19 > 0:30:21Whoever I want to be.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24And who are you?
0:30:24 > 0:30:26Anymore?
0:30:26 > 0:30:27'My problem with...'
0:30:27 > 0:30:32the kerfuffle about the Monocled Mutineer
0:30:32 > 0:30:33was that, as I've said to you,
0:30:33 > 0:30:37I was writing it for my dad and the granddad I never knew,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39and then...
0:30:39 > 0:30:42I realised there were people
0:30:42 > 0:30:44who were trying to get
0:30:44 > 0:30:47at the basic philosophy of the piece, but more really,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50trying to get at the BBC at the time.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52This was 30 years ago. Nothing changes.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56The BBC were already under attack for alleged left-wing bias.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59They were being sued by two Conservative MPS.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02There'd been calls for the Director General to resign.
0:31:02 > 0:31:04Now the battle commenced.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06The BBC were being gunned at.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09The BBC were being attacked
0:31:09 > 0:31:13and their enemies were looking for any way to fire the guns at them.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15The BBC defended the work,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19but they'd already shot themselves in the foot.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22Three little words in an early advertising campaign
0:31:22 > 0:31:25had given their enemies the ammunition they needed.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28What it said, I think I've got it here...
0:31:31 > 0:31:36.."It was an enthralling, true-life story of Percy Toplis."
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Double page spread in every newspaper,
0:31:40 > 0:31:44and I died inside, because I knew it wasn't true life,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48I knew that character was to a degree fictional,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51and I knew I'd made an awful lot of stuff up,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54and I knew then that I was going to be attacked.
0:31:54 > 0:31:59Attention focused on the alleged historical inaccuracies.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Had the extent of the mutiny been exaggerated?
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Had the real life Toplis been there at all?
0:32:04 > 0:32:07Beyond that lurked the bigger question -
0:32:07 > 0:32:10to what extent should drama be tied to the facts?
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Can it tell the greater truth about war?
0:32:14 > 0:32:17I hated the Monocled Mutineer because I'm a historian
0:32:17 > 0:32:20and I know too much about that period.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25I never thought of this as a drama doc or a documentary.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29It certainly wasn't a true life story because nothing adds up,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31it doesn't, but I tried to make it add up.
0:32:31 > 0:32:36I never quite understand why television dramatists feel
0:32:36 > 0:32:39they have to impose fiction on real events,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41in quite that way.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45I can't for the life of me see why they can't tell their great truths
0:32:45 > 0:32:47within a fictional context.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52'The argument is - and I'm not comparing myself to Shakespeare -'
0:32:52 > 0:32:56that Richard III wasn't really real, you know,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59it wasn't historically correct, but it made great drama.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04The Monocled Mutineer was critically acclaimed and politically savaged.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09But for all its alleged subversiveness, in some senses
0:33:09 > 0:33:13the play expressed what's now the accepted view of World War One.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17'What Toplis does, he plays the part of the modern man.'
0:33:17 > 0:33:20You're never going to identify with anybody else in this story
0:33:20 > 0:33:24because by this point our culture has absolutely decided
0:33:24 > 0:33:25that all the First World War was,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28was a foolish, senseless, waste of human life.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33If you want an example of how firmly the idea
0:33:33 > 0:33:38has crystallised in our culture, then Blackadder IV does it for you.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40I love Blackadder, but up the same time,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43one has to remember that it is simply not history.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47I think there has been an orthodoxy which has developed,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50in many ways almost a caricature of the First World War,
0:33:50 > 0:33:55of lions led by donkeys. I think there's always a terrible temptation
0:33:55 > 0:33:59to almost exaggerate it in a lot of the televisual depiction
0:33:59 > 0:34:00of the First World War.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04Perhaps a truly radical play would be the one that now argues
0:34:04 > 0:34:06The Great War was worth fighting.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08A great many people today say,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12no cause could possibly have been worth the slaughter that we suffered.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17I personally think, that if the Kaiser's Germany had prevailed in the First World War,
0:34:17 > 0:34:22the consequences for Europe would've been as grievous as if the Nazis had prevailed in the Second.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27For years, television dramatists had been confined to old wars and cold wars.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31But in the 1980s, that had changed.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36A mere four days ago, scenes such as this were utterly unthinkable.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40This is a British fleet putting to sea, not on some training exercise,
0:34:40 > 0:34:44but sailing with every intention of doing battle with an enemy.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47It was an old fashioned war in many ways, the Falklands War.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49It was fought with fairly conventional weapons.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52In a sense, it was Britain's last burst
0:34:52 > 0:34:55of being a mini super power, if you like.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00That period, the 1970s, the British had been screwing up almost everything.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03And here was something we did terribly well.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07It had all the criteria for the perfect colonial war -
0:35:07 > 0:35:11it didn't go on too long, it had a beginning, middle and end,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15the other side weren't very good and we won.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18After so long watching war on television,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22out of nowhere came a chance to relive our finest hour.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25Basically, the concern was that we would get there
0:35:25 > 0:35:27and it would be finished.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30That was the real worry.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33There was a chance there may have been diplomatic clean up,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37and that was a worry, that we might have to turn around and come back.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41As you get closer, the amazement of what you're walking into
0:35:41 > 0:35:43does dawn on you
0:35:43 > 0:35:48and what you know it best from, is having grown up watching war movies.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51All the people fighting the Falklands had been brought up
0:35:51 > 0:35:53on World War II '50s movies
0:35:53 > 0:35:57and they devised their scripts on the bridge in action
0:35:57 > 0:35:59from those war movies.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03So suddenly on the QE2 going down there, we're saying,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05"Keep an eye on Tommy the tiger fish..."
0:36:05 > 0:36:10i.e. a torpedo from a submarine or a ship that might try and sink us.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15When you get down there and you're on the islands,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19I don't care how good the last Richard Todd movie you saw was,
0:36:19 > 0:36:21it's not really what you're thinking about.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25But you understand, in a sense, what's classically expected of you.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30We're now between the two gun lines
0:36:30 > 0:36:34and there's a right old artillery dual going on between them...
0:36:34 > 0:36:37By now we had journalists embedded with the troops.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40But the real drama still happened off camera.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45Our major action was the final action on Mount Tumbledown
0:36:45 > 0:36:46just outside Port Stanley.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50It was, you know, a hell of an experience.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52The battle made an eerie sight,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56the British progress marked only by the lines of tracer.
0:36:56 > 0:37:01I ended up having to lead an assault against a machine gun post.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04It was a case of doing what you do in the movies.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07I stood up, I shouted, "Follow me",
0:37:07 > 0:37:09and threw a grenade.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22That night's events would inspire Charles Woods' Falklands war film, Tumbledown.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28There's a number of things going through your mind during these battles,
0:37:28 > 0:37:29the brain works very fast.
0:37:29 > 0:37:35I remember being shocked at how physically hard it was to kill a man.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39The idea of the classic lunge to the stomach, you know,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42isn't really what happens at the end of the day.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47They're grabbing hold of your rifle and it becomes extremely unpleasant.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51Lawrence dispatched several men on his way to the top of Mount Tumbledown,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55before he in turn was shot in the head by an Argentine sniper.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57I was probably saved
0:37:57 > 0:38:01by the extreme cold, which shut my body down,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05but by the end of my operations,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08having been cleaned up, I'd lost 42% of my brain.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12- What are you doing? - Just cleaning up, that's all.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14'It was obvious that I was out of the army.'
0:38:14 > 0:38:17The minimum requirement is that you can run away,
0:38:17 > 0:38:19I would have thought, and I can't.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21- You all right, Robert?- No!
0:38:23 > 0:38:27'So many veterans of the Second World War
0:38:27 > 0:38:29'didn't really talk about their experiences,'
0:38:29 > 0:38:32mainly because so many people around you
0:38:32 > 0:38:37had similar experiences, or other experiences. You felt no need.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41'So I determined I had a duty to inform my generation
0:38:41 > 0:38:44'a bit more about the nature of war.'
0:38:44 > 0:38:46The members of the Royal Family
0:38:46 > 0:38:51take their places at the front of this huge...
0:38:51 > 0:38:54silent, standing congregation.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58Tumbledown looked back at the battle but focussed on what happened next.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02'The wounded weren't allowed on the Victory Parade.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06'I was not allowed in uniform at the St Paul's memorial service
0:39:06 > 0:39:08'because I was in a wheelchair,'
0:39:08 > 0:39:12and I looked around and realised how little we'd improved,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15in those days especially, in our care of veterans.
0:39:15 > 0:39:20These men were put in a position to defend a very small territory,
0:39:20 > 0:39:22and the price they pay is enormously high
0:39:22 > 0:39:28and the indifference of the government and the authorities to them seemed to be monumental.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30Two hours I've been sitting here.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32Two hours.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34Couldn't see a thing.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38Its tales of post-traumatic stress disorder and bureaucratic
0:39:38 > 0:39:42indifference ensured a hostile reception from the army.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47- What are they frightened of? - But the film also captured the real drama of war.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54'I grew up watching Reach For The Sky.'
0:39:54 > 0:39:58I have a brother who refers to Tumbledown as Reach For The Sky with swearing.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03'Nothing should be pro-war, clearly,'
0:40:03 > 0:40:07and nothing should be anti-war, solely.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10You know, I'm a soldier, I enjoy soldiering,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12and it would be wrong to pretend I didn't.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16After 30 years, television had finally made a war film
0:40:16 > 0:40:19that matched anything in the cinema,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21complete with a cinematic ending.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23ISN'T THIS FUN?!
0:40:27 > 0:40:30How thick do you have to be to think I actually did that?
0:40:30 > 0:40:32The words, "Isn't this fun?",
0:40:32 > 0:40:37I'd used it probably an hour and a half before the end.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42I recall desperately trying to get the director
0:40:42 > 0:40:48to change that image of me standing with my arms in the air shouting, "Isn't this fun?",
0:40:48 > 0:40:54and I said, "There's no way I would highlight myself on a ridge like that",
0:40:54 > 0:40:57to which the answer was, "Listen, Robert, this is film."
0:40:58 > 0:41:00For the first time for many years,
0:41:00 > 0:41:05British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10Television had become a battleground for conflicting opinions about war.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14At the heart of the debate was the relationship between drama and history.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18In The Falklands Play, Ian Curteis, the veteran dramatist of Suez
0:41:18 > 0:41:23and Churchill, looked not at the war, but at the reasons for it.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25I don't feel I'm drawn to war.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29I think I'm drawn to the politics of why war becomes inevitable.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33People say to me occasionally, "You write about war",
0:41:33 > 0:41:36and I say, "Well, I don't write about fighting.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40"It's the politics of the thing, and the personal struggles behind the scenes."
0:41:40 > 0:41:43The Falklands Play had been thoroughly researched,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47but this was no drama documentary. It was a play with an opinion.
0:41:47 > 0:41:48Margaret!
0:41:48 > 0:41:52I think the difference between a play and a dramatised documentary
0:41:52 > 0:41:55is that a dramatised documentary is supposed to be impartial.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59A play based on history, a totally different animal, which is what I write,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02sticks to the essential facts, simplifies them,
0:42:02 > 0:42:07but tries to get into the heads and the motives of the people going on.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10There was no mistaking the key player in The Falklands Play.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13This is Margaret Thatcher. Can I help?
0:42:13 > 0:42:17'The Falklands Play portrayed Margaret Thatcher as a very introspective,'
0:42:17 > 0:42:20rather thoughtful, rather tortured soul,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23instead of the battleaxe,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25the Iron Lady that everybody had come to see her as.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29It's a terrible thing to send those men in to fight,
0:42:29 > 0:42:34to risk their young lives in those atrocious conditions.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38- They're professionals.- Of course they are, and superb, but...
0:42:38 > 0:42:42I've never seen fighting, Willy.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45'Mrs Thatcher wasn't popular in the broadcasting world'
0:42:45 > 0:42:48to put it lightly.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51So a number of things I was asked to change about her,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54which I said, "That would be wrong. It didn't happen like that".
0:42:54 > 0:42:58The BBC demanded changes. Curteis was unwilling to make them.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01When the production stalled, he went public with his grievances.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Once more, an attempt to dramatise war
0:43:05 > 0:43:07had become mired in controversy.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11We've heard the author tell us it was because he was unwilling
0:43:11 > 0:43:13to introduce fictional matter
0:43:13 > 0:43:18critical of the Government into his play as a condition of its screening.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22We still await a plausible explanation of that affair.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25The BBC had an explanation for the play's cancellation.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28They said the work wasn't very good.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32I made it very clear at the time to the Board of Governors,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36to the press, to anybody who was interested, that the sole grounds
0:43:36 > 0:43:39for not going ahead with the commission
0:43:39 > 0:43:42was the fact that I didn't think the script was good enough.
0:43:42 > 0:43:48I know what he said, cos it was in the press report which followed the actual press conference he gave.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54I seethed, and I suppose I used to lie awake at three in the morning seething,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58but one can't do anything at that time. The best thing to do is to go to sleep again,
0:43:58 > 0:44:00hoping that it would see the light of day.
0:44:00 > 0:44:06Cancelled in the run up to the 1987 election, The Falklands Play
0:44:06 > 0:44:08finally went out 15 years later,
0:44:08 > 0:44:12on a smaller budget, and with a number of cuts.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16It took a sympathetic line on the most controversial moment in the war.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Pincer movement?
0:44:18 > 0:44:25The Belgrano and her escorts, carrying Exocets, could suddenly turn and steam hard north.
0:44:25 > 0:44:31The Veinticinco de Mayo could simultaneously steam south and launch her Skyhawk attack aircraft.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34The facts are known as to what happened about the Belgrano,
0:44:34 > 0:44:37what the Belgrano was about to do, what the Belgrano was about to attack,
0:44:37 > 0:44:39and that there was a pincer movement happening.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42There's bound to be tremendous world reaction.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44It's a major escalation of the fighting.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48But they've been trying to sink our ships, kill our boys.
0:44:48 > 0:44:49They invaded, not us.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51Like so many plays before it,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55The Falklands Play nailed its colours to the mast.
0:44:55 > 0:44:57I think it was a just war.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01All war is to be avoided if conceivably possible
0:45:01 > 0:45:03but some wars have to be fought.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09NEWSCASTER: A massive air campaign has begun.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12Baghdad has been under heavy bombardment tonight.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Wars are fought in a new way today and covered in a new way by television.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19It's unclear exactly how many Iraqi troops are up ahead of us.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23We get journalists dispatching reports from the front line,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27even soldiers shooting the action on cameras in their helmets.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30It's brought us closer to war than ever before.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34The way television - in particular, but maybe the internet as well -
0:45:34 > 0:45:38looks at war has changed dramatically and permanently now.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41The fact there's so much access to pictures of war,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44whether it's from soldiers' own phones or 24-hour rolling news,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47it means there's no secrets in war any more.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51In spite, or perhaps because of the blanket coverage, it seems many
0:45:51 > 0:45:55of the certainties we once had about war have disappeared.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59We see the human cost much more than we ever did in the Second World War,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03and that in a sense adds to our feeling of confusion.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07We don't quite know why we're there, we don't know which side who's on,
0:46:07 > 0:46:10we don't know who are goodies and baddies,
0:46:10 > 0:46:14we don't know what the population of Afghanistan or Iraq really want.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16I don't think we can find our thread through it all.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20For dramatists entering this fray, perhaps the safest approach
0:46:20 > 0:46:23is to stick as close as possible to the facts.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26When Ten Days To War brought to life the second Iraq war's
0:46:26 > 0:46:31most famous eve of battle speech, it did it word for word.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33So, we're on, sir?
0:46:33 > 0:46:35It looks like it.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Can I ask you something, sir?
0:46:37 > 0:46:39Not now.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42My concern was piqued by one of my soldiers who asked me,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45"Are we about to invade Iraq, and if so, why?"
0:46:45 > 0:46:49And that realisation that no-one had actually told me
0:46:49 > 0:46:51what was meant to be happening.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55- What do you think I should say? - I'm sure you'll think of something.
0:46:56 > 0:47:01I felt that as I expected many of my young Irish soldiers
0:47:01 > 0:47:04were about to lay down their lives in this war,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07and certainly to take other human lives,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10that I personally owed them an explanation.
0:47:10 > 0:47:17We are going into Iraq to liberate and not to conquer.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20We will not fly our flags in their country.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24I was keen to emphasise they should be respectful towards
0:47:24 > 0:47:27other people and mankind because I know what can happen in combat.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31Iraq is steeped in history.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34It is the site of the Garden of Eden.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38The Great Flood,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41It is the birthplace of Abraham.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43You tread...
0:47:46 > 0:47:48You tread lightly there.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52I made the speech up as I went along but apparently it made sense.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55It was written down in shorthand by a journalist
0:47:55 > 0:47:58and it wasn't recorded by any electronic media,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02so when the hungry 24-hour news world wanted to grab it,
0:48:02 > 0:48:04'all there was was pieces of paper.'
0:48:04 > 0:48:08I expect you to rock their world.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11Wipe them out, if that's what they choose.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18If you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22Actually, they did capture very accurately the spirit
0:48:22 > 0:48:27and the immediacy of the time and the tension and the anger as well.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31Let's bring everybody home safely
0:48:31 > 0:48:35and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38The speech to the First Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment
0:48:38 > 0:48:40became a global phenomenon.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44The words reportedly ended up pinned to the Oval Office wall.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48It would appear the rest of the English-speaking world
0:48:48 > 0:48:52was seeking some explanation of what was happening,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55and I suspect that's why many people latched onto it.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57Good luck.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Opinions were divided on Iraq and Afghanistan but there was
0:49:02 > 0:49:07general agreement on one thing - neither war was very funny.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11# We could have been anything that we wanted to be
0:49:11 > 0:49:14# With all the talent we have... #
0:49:14 > 0:49:17One of the few brave enough to give it a go
0:49:17 > 0:49:20was BBC Three's Gary: Tank Commander.
0:49:20 > 0:49:25# We're the very best at being bad guys. #
0:49:25 > 0:49:29Gary: Tank Commander is basically about a group of squaddies
0:49:29 > 0:49:32led by the character of Corporal Gary McLintoch,
0:49:32 > 0:49:38who you could describe possibly as...a confident fool.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Who knows what's going to happen in Iraq?
0:49:42 > 0:49:45It might turn into the new Ibiza.
0:49:45 > 0:49:46You know?
0:49:46 > 0:49:50Maybe next year folk'll ask you where you're going on your holidays
0:49:50 > 0:49:52and you might be like, "I'm off to Basra."
0:49:52 > 0:49:54He thinks he's very aware of the world
0:49:54 > 0:49:57and the political problems leading up to Iraq
0:49:57 > 0:49:59and Afghanistan so he's got his own world view
0:49:59 > 0:50:03on what the real issues are and how to resolve them.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07A lot of folk'll say "That'll never happen. Look at all the violence.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12"Look how run-down it is, there's no industry, there's nothing to do, the hotels are rubbish."
0:50:12 > 0:50:14But look at Blackpool!
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Gary Tank Commander tipped its hat to some of its illustrious predecessors.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Dad's Army. Do you remember that? "Don't tell me your name, Pike!"
0:50:22 > 0:50:24That was his name. That was funny. I liked that.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27- And that old boy, what was he called?- Mainwaring?
0:50:27 > 0:50:29- No.- Jonesy?
0:50:29 > 0:50:33- No, the old boy!- "We're dooooomed!" Him?
0:50:33 > 0:50:34No!
0:50:34 > 0:50:39It's about opposites. Rene Artois in 'Allo 'Allo! is the unlikely hero
0:50:39 > 0:50:41and you don't expect that.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46Mainwaring's an unlikely leader of men in Dad's Army.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48Gary is another unlikely leader.
0:50:48 > 0:50:54What was it he used to say? He'd be like, "I was just passin'..."
0:50:54 > 0:50:56That's 'Allo 'Allo! Gary.
0:50:56 > 0:51:02But if comedy is tragedy plus time, them something was missing.
0:51:02 > 0:51:07Here was a sitcom which brokered the past by being set in the present.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10The longer you're away from a conflict, the safer it seems
0:51:10 > 0:51:13to be able to say something about it.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16It's probably easier for Black Adder to set its final series
0:51:16 > 0:51:18during the First World War than it would have been
0:51:18 > 0:51:21to set it during the Second World War or The Falklands War.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24We're not far off the back of Iraq and yet we're writing a sitcom,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28and Afghanistan's still going, so you don't get the same leeway.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31You have to be quite sensitive about how you deal with it.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35One way of dealing with is to set the action between tours of duty.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38The front only features in the form of flashbacks,
0:51:38 > 0:51:40shot as soldiers' home video.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42When I was researching the show
0:51:42 > 0:51:45and trying to capture the essence of the camaraderie,
0:51:45 > 0:51:48I was looking up clips online and seeing what soldiers were doing.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51I thought it'd be nice to get something troops were doing
0:51:51 > 0:51:54out in Afghanistan and Iraq and representing it in the show.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56BAGPIPES PLAY "WE WILL ROCK YOU"
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Camaraderie, by definition, is fun, whether it's down the pub
0:52:00 > 0:52:01with your football team
0:52:01 > 0:52:04or whether it's in the trenches of the First World War
0:52:04 > 0:52:07or whether it's currently in Afghanistan.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10That's a fun bonding experience
0:52:10 > 0:52:13and you don't see that when you're watching the news.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18All we get is another soldier killed, another soldier maimed, but we don't
0:52:18 > 0:52:23get much insight into any other workings of army life, so I think
0:52:23 > 0:52:29that soldiers watch the show and like the fact we're seeing a different side to how soldiers are portrayed.
0:52:37 > 0:52:38If you trawl the Internet,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42you'll see people saying, "This is dreadful. This isn't funny".
0:52:42 > 0:52:45But one interesting thing a soldier said to me was,
0:52:45 > 0:52:47"You can't offend soldiers".
0:52:47 > 0:52:51If you think about what they've experienced, you just can't touch it.
0:52:51 > 0:52:52You can't offend them.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56If you're making some jokes in a sitcom, they're not affected by that.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06As British troops fought in foreign fields, the War Against Terror
0:53:06 > 0:53:10came to our doorstep. TV's response? The re-invention
0:53:10 > 0:53:14of the '60s spy thriller for the post-9/11 age.
0:53:14 > 0:53:19The idea of counter-terrorism is attractive to TV for several reasons.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23It's something very Zeitgeist-y, something in the newspapers.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Rather like the old Cold War stories,
0:53:26 > 0:53:29it's one that you don't need a gigantic budget to stage.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33People in Spooks spend most of their time just looking at computers.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Take it back a bit.
0:53:36 > 0:53:37They're our bombers.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41That world has occasional outbursts of action
0:53:41 > 0:53:45but mostly it's people in rooms shouting at each other.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50Counter the order to push people back into the station. Get everybody out.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53One of most common questions I'm asked is,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57"Is Spooks really like it really is?"
0:53:57 > 0:54:01There's people in the station. The roof will come down in five minutes!
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Of course the answer is no, it's not like it really is!
0:54:03 > 0:54:07Three, two, one, cut.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14Well done, everybody.
0:54:14 > 0:54:20There's something about TV drama which seems to consist of going out
0:54:20 > 0:54:21and killing the enemy.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Where's the bomb? Where's the bomb?!
0:54:24 > 0:54:28And killing the enemy is actually not what's done at all.
0:54:28 > 0:54:35British Intelligence doesn't kill people. If there's killing to be done, it's done by the military.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41I don't know how, when people have watched an episode of Spooks,
0:54:41 > 0:54:45for example, how they then feel. Do they feel reassured?
0:54:45 > 0:54:48There are people going around saving us.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53Or do they feel frightfully anxious that these dreadful things
0:54:53 > 0:54:55are going on on our streets?
0:54:55 > 0:54:57If it were me, I'd feel frightfully anxious
0:54:57 > 0:55:02that the people protecting us look so over-excitable.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07In the midst of the War Against Terror, television's fascination
0:55:07 > 0:55:09with the Second World War was as strong as ever.
0:55:09 > 0:55:16Even without the comedy accents, the Nazis still made the best bad guys.
0:55:16 > 0:55:17Or did they?
0:55:22 > 0:55:28The Sinking Of The Laconia told the true-life story of a U-Boat commander who torpedoed a ship
0:55:28 > 0:55:34before putting his crew's life in danger to rescue the survivors.
0:55:34 > 0:55:38I didn't create him, he was there. Commander Hartenstein.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43For me, one of the extraordinary heroes of the 20th century.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47It was a gift to me to have someone like that
0:55:47 > 0:55:53because it showed you that in the middle of the violence,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57hatred and savagery of the Nazi philosophy,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01somebody had kept his moral valour.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34It was the same blend of drama and historical fact
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Bleasdale had brought to the Monocled Mutineer,
0:56:37 > 0:56:39but this time his defences were up.
0:56:39 > 0:56:47When I wrote the first draft, I was hysterically factually correct
0:56:47 > 0:56:51beyond my own belief that I could do that.
0:56:51 > 0:56:58If that submarine fired that torpedo on the 13th of September 1942,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02it didn't fire it at just around 8 o'clock.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06It fired it at 8.08 and 13 seconds.
0:57:06 > 0:57:12Television has dramatised war through the ages across the genres.
0:57:12 > 0:57:17It's told us the stories of those involved and illuminated the decisions they've made.
0:57:17 > 0:57:23Sometimes it's done it so well we've not been sure what we've been watching.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26We are living in an age when people have so little idea
0:57:26 > 0:57:28of the dividing line between fact and fiction.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33I do think it's terrifying, this blend we've developed
0:57:33 > 0:57:36in recent years, in an age of historical ignorance.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40With drama becoming more realistic and documentary becoming more dramatic,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43how will TV go to war in the future?
0:57:43 > 0:57:47Will drama be relegated to filling in the bits the news cameras miss?
0:57:47 > 0:57:53Or does it still have something to say about war in the modern age?
0:57:53 > 0:57:56Because the wars currently being fought are broadcast simultaneously
0:57:56 > 0:58:04across all the media, I don't think that makes the fictionalised war drama impossible.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08Actually, it's given it a whole new vernacular in which to work,
0:58:08 > 0:58:10a whole new set of images.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13Drama finds it very hard not to have an opinion.
0:58:13 > 0:58:19The Monocled Mutineer, Tumbledown, whichever film you want to name, it has an opinion.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22Any idea that just because you've got helmet cameras,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26you're seeing the full reality of war - no way.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29There's always going to be other dimensions for the filmmaker
0:58:29 > 0:58:31and the dramatist to explore in fiction.
0:58:46 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:53E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk