:00:07. > :00:08.The Hyde Park Picturehouse, one of the UK's oldest
:00:09. > :00:15.We have invited this audience to watch a film whose release
:00:16. > :00:22.attracted more people than Star Wars.
:00:23. > :00:26.A film that captured the horror and humanity
:00:27. > :00:38.That would've been the first vision of war people had.
:00:39. > :00:40.This programme looks beyond the images to one
:00:41. > :00:49.He'd prepared to take risks that no one else would take.
:00:50. > :00:55.Some of the most remarkable film ever shot.
:00:56. > :00:59.He loves to tell a story, and he knows how to tell a story.
:01:00. > :01:10.He now brings the camera around, so the men come over the top.
:01:11. > :01:12.In this programme we retrace his journey to the front lines,
:01:13. > :01:15.and ask why his record of the Battle of the Somme has a place
:01:16. > :01:19.If everyone has a debate about the depiction of the horrors
:01:20. > :01:33.of war, this is the place where we start the discussion.
:01:34. > :01:35.Across the rolling farmland of the Somme, Europe has
:01:36. > :01:47.The Thiepval memorial to the missing, the congregation gazed
:01:48. > :01:49.into the faces of men who fell one century ago.
:01:50. > :01:57.Unique combat footage from the man who called himself
:01:58. > :02:15.The fashionable Sussex resort of Hastings, a world
:02:16. > :02:18.away from the storms that were gathering across Europe.
:02:19. > :02:22.This is where Geoffrey Malins grew up in the 19th century.
:02:23. > :02:25.One of a large family, he started work as a photographer,
:02:26. > :02:33.determined to make something of himself.
:02:34. > :02:35.He's charming, definitely, real entrepreneur from his time.
:02:36. > :02:43.He works commercially, doing lots of portraits,
:02:44. > :02:54.Very much involved in the community he was working in advertising.
:02:55. > :02:57.He was very much wanting to better his career, if you like.
:02:58. > :02:59.He took opportunities when they came up.
:03:00. > :03:02.He took them with enthusiasm and excitement.
:03:03. > :03:04.Taking a good studio portrait requires a good deal
:03:05. > :03:13.As a portrait photographer, Malins acquired a number
:03:14. > :03:16.of useful studio skills, a good understanding
:03:17. > :03:18.of the technologies in film and cameras.
:03:19. > :03:28.Malins was undoubtedly an ambitious man.
:03:29. > :03:34.Very keen to make a go of whatever he tried.
:03:35. > :03:37.Within a few years Malins, ever the entrepreneur,
:03:38. > :03:44.There was still a place for beautifully composed photos
:03:45. > :03:58.Geoffrey Malins was tempted away by the moving image.
:03:59. > :04:01.It was called kinomatography, giving people a mix
:04:02. > :04:07.He took a job as a cameraman, initially working on short feature
:04:08. > :04:19.The newsreels began in France, 1908, exported to the UK in 1910.
:04:20. > :04:24.A lot of the early newsreel footage shot outdoors.
:04:25. > :04:29.Some of the equipment was cumbersome, to say the least.
:04:30. > :04:32.Here we have three cameras, typical examples of the kind
:04:33. > :04:54.of cameras they would have used in the First World War period.
:04:55. > :04:56.The largest one at the end, British made one,
:04:57. > :05:01.When you have a handcranked camera, you get camera movement, creating
:05:02. > :05:05.This one, you would pump up the compressed air cylinders,
:05:06. > :05:07.housed in the camera, takes about ten minutes,
:05:08. > :05:10.that would give you a few minutes of filming time in the field,
:05:11. > :05:26.In 1914, newsreel companies were scrambling to cover a breaking
:05:27. > :05:31.Geoffrey Malins' first opportunity to prove his new worth as a news
:05:32. > :05:38.cameraman arrived faster than he could imagine.
:05:39. > :05:43.In London, film-makers saw their plans scuppered
:05:44. > :05:45.by military chiefs, initially opposing any suggestion news cameras
:05:46. > :06:03.should be allowed on the battlefield.
:06:04. > :06:06.Banning British companies from the Western front.
:06:07. > :06:08.As the armies dug in, the need for effective propaganda
:06:09. > :06:15.There is an audience hungry for images of what is
:06:16. > :06:28.Initially this space is covered by Belgian, French and German
:06:29. > :06:30.This material becomes very highly prized.
:06:31. > :06:32.British film-makers applying pressure on the British Army
:06:33. > :06:36.and the state, to be more relaxed about the attitude.
:06:37. > :06:43.Finally by the autumn of 1915, there is an agreement, first of all,
:06:44. > :06:51.correspondence and stills cameramen will be allowed, by October 1915,
:06:52. > :06:54.two cine cameramen are sent over to France, commercial cameramen.
:06:55. > :07:02.Geoffrey Malins was one of them, soon finding itself in uniform.
:07:03. > :07:04.Over the next few months, he travelled throughout
:07:05. > :07:07.northern France and Belgium, sending a series of dispatches back
:07:08. > :07:17.They are conducted by military intelligence officers in charge
:07:18. > :07:27.If you want to get anywhere, you have to have a military vehicle,
:07:28. > :07:30.apparently one is only available three days out of five.
:07:31. > :07:33.Totally reliant on the Army to move around the Western front.
:07:34. > :08:01.Not only quite inaccessible physically, it is bloody dangerous.
:08:02. > :08:04.Several times on the journey, shrapnel and splinters bury
:08:05. > :08:08.When I reach the firing trench, all our men were standing
:08:09. > :08:12.I placed sandbags on either side of the camera, starting to film.
:08:13. > :08:16.By the summer of 1916, Malins had arrived behind
:08:17. > :08:21.By the summer of 1916, Malins had arrived behind British lines,
:08:22. > :08:25.near the town of Albert, on the Somme.
:08:26. > :08:30.He and a colleague, JB McDowell, began filming the preparations,
:08:31. > :08:37.for what was termed the great offensive.
:08:38. > :08:40.He was told he was being given a chance to watch
:08:41. > :09:00.As the skies lightened in the early hours of the 1st of July, 1916,
:09:01. > :09:03.Geoffrey Malins and his escort made their way to the front line.
:09:04. > :09:06.Around them tens of thousands of men, French and British waiting
:09:07. > :09:27.I have been in all sorts of places under heavy shellfire,
:09:28. > :09:29.nothing, absolutely nothing compared with the frightful and demoralising
:09:30. > :09:40.nature of the shellfire I experienced on that journey.
:09:41. > :09:42.In front was a roadway, pitted with shell holes.
:09:43. > :09:55.Where we are now, the northern end of the entire attack.
:09:56. > :09:58.Extending to our north, and down south about 18 miles.
:09:59. > :10:00.Malins could only cover with his camera a very small
:10:01. > :10:08.He has to be very careful what he does.
:10:09. > :10:13.What Malins does, filming this way, now bringing the camera around,
:10:14. > :10:21.lined up beautifully, so the men come over the top,
:10:22. > :10:32.Andy Robertshaw matched Malins' movements one century ago
:10:33. > :10:35.Facing us in the exact spot where Malins filmed one
:10:36. > :10:43.At about 6:20am he gets to here, setting his camera up,
:10:44. > :10:45.the lane is full of soldiers, waiting to attack,
:10:46. > :10:53.I could see the bottom of the Lane, sitting virtually here.
:10:54. > :10:57.These guys sat almost exactly where we are.
:10:58. > :11:00.Malins exactly the same height, filming slightly down,
:11:01. > :11:09.Guys looking very concerned, others relaxed.
:11:10. > :11:17.For many of these men, the last time they will be alive,
:11:18. > :11:21.within an hour many going over the top.
:11:22. > :11:38.For their family, many of them, the last image will be
:11:39. > :11:41.screen, with their loved ones' faces looking at them, going over the top.
:11:42. > :11:44.That must have happened many times, because they would be
:11:45. > :11:48.One hour later Malins and his party scrambled into position as engineers
:11:49. > :12:02.prepared to detonate a huge mine under the German trenches.
:12:03. > :12:10.Time, 7:19am, my hand grasped the bottom of the camera,
:12:11. > :12:23.The ground gave a mighty convulsion, the Earth rose to hundreds of feet.
:12:24. > :12:25.With a horrible roar the earth fell back onto itself,
:12:26. > :12:37.Throughout that long and bloody day, Malins and McDowell, a few miles
:12:38. > :12:47.apart, capture the scale and futility of the attack.
:12:48. > :12:50.Shell after Shell crashing in the middle of them,
:12:51. > :12:56.Other men quickly fill them up, passing through the smoke,
:12:57. > :13:08.Hampered by their heavy equipment, and the risks of moving around,
:13:09. > :13:11.the cameramen managed to capture a series of scenes which was shocked
:13:12. > :13:37.As the casualties, dead and injured were brought in.
:13:38. > :13:39.Scenes crowded in upon me, wounded, more wounded,
:13:40. > :13:43.men who a few hours before had left over the parapet, full of life
:13:44. > :13:45.and vigour, now dribbling back, some of them shattered
:13:46. > :14:07.Around 70,000 men were killed or injured on the first day of the
:14:08. > :14:12.battle, more than 57,000 were from Britain and the Commonwealth. The
:14:13. > :14:16.full-scale further carnage did not hit home with Geoffrey Malins until
:14:17. > :14:24.he filmed a roll call in the trenches after the first disastrous
:14:25. > :14:31.attacks. He described what he saw in his memoirs. In one little space,
:14:32. > :14:36.just two lines, all that was left of a glorious regiment. The ghastly
:14:37. > :14:38.scenes of which I was witnessing will always remain, a hideous
:14:39. > :14:56.nightmare in my memory. A few weeks later, those scenes were
:14:57. > :15:01.being shown to a military into legends committee in London. There
:15:02. > :15:06.was debate over the content, in the end Malins and his producer
:15:07. > :15:10.convinced the government the film was worth more than a series of
:15:11. > :15:14.short newsreel items. According to the supervising editor, the nascent
:15:15. > :15:19.Porton man putting this together after the cameraman, when he saw the
:15:20. > :15:26.power of the material coming back to London, they bring back the footage,
:15:27. > :15:30.he persuades the War office this is great stuff, let's turn it into a
:15:31. > :15:35.war film. Geoffrey Malins and his colleague had produced extraordinary
:15:36. > :15:42.footage. Some was not what it appeared to be. The initial problem,
:15:43. > :15:45.the film needed a climax. That had to be the moment when the big push
:15:46. > :15:52.happened. The troops going over the top. Malins filmed that, the film he
:15:53. > :15:57.took survives in the finished product. It is extremely small
:15:58. > :16:01.figures dealing unclear things in the extreme distance. As a visual
:16:02. > :16:08.climax to a film, absolutely useless. You can understand the
:16:09. > :16:16.impulse that would say, we have to have something better. Unable to
:16:17. > :16:22.capture that key moment, Malins staged it behind the lines. This
:16:23. > :16:28.piece of film sums up everybody's the of the opening seconds of the
:16:29. > :16:34.Battle of the Somme. Not only Somme, not on the 1st of July, not even
:16:35. > :16:38.soldiers taking part in the battle. There is the officer going forward.
:16:39. > :16:44.That man looks back at the camera, then falling back. In the next
:16:45. > :16:50.sequence, that man falls, that man falls. That man moves, having been
:16:51. > :16:58.shot. This man looks at the camera, crosses his legs. The majority of
:16:59. > :17:03.the film was all too real. In the months following its release, 20
:17:04. > :17:10.million people went to see it, half of the UK population. The government
:17:11. > :17:16.believed the film would convince audiences to stand behind the war
:17:17. > :17:19.effort. It's no holds barred approach was more than some people
:17:20. > :17:25.could take. People were very shocked at what they saw, one account of
:17:26. > :17:30.people crying out at the famous over the top sequence, oh, my God he has
:17:31. > :17:36.been shot. The general consensus was, if the purpose of the film was
:17:37. > :17:42.to expose civilians to the realities of life on the Western front, death
:17:43. > :17:47.was one of those realities. Above all Malins and his colleagues had
:17:48. > :17:55.tried to show the humanity of life on the front. In picture houses all
:17:56. > :18:00.over Britain, families search the faces for a glimpse of someone they
:18:01. > :18:09.knew or love. There he is. That is my dad, Walter. There he is again.
:18:10. > :18:20.He spotted himself, walking along the trench, carrying a stretcher. He
:18:21. > :18:25.called out in surprise. That is me. David Livermore's father recognised
:18:26. > :18:34.himself in this shot, 50 years later. Seeing the picture of the men
:18:35. > :18:41.going through that trench, I feel what he must have felt like and
:18:42. > :18:46.more. Some of his mates Mustadeem hit by shells and bombs, buried
:18:47. > :18:59.alive in mind and the trenches. That is what I feel. Geoffrey Malins'
:19:00. > :19:06.experiences on the Western front took their toll, ill health forcing
:19:07. > :19:10.him home before the war ended. The risk his life on countless occasions
:19:11. > :19:16.to get shots he needed. I have tried all the time to realise I was the
:19:17. > :19:19.eyes and ears of millions. In my pictures I have tried to catch
:19:20. > :19:25.something of the glamour as one of the awful horror of it all. Worthy
:19:26. > :19:32.of being preserved as a permanent memorial of the greatest drama in
:19:33. > :19:37.history. They really capture the spirit of the soldiers. For me, more
:19:38. > :19:43.about what the audiences would have felt like home. The 20 million, you
:19:44. > :19:47.can guarantee if you are in the audience, there is someone you know
:19:48. > :19:54.in the film, someone you know. I liked it, it was very honest and
:19:55. > :19:58.real, I found it moving. Pitiful seeing everyone streaming to their
:19:59. > :20:05.death, awful. We know looking at those faces, some of them would not
:20:06. > :20:09.survive the day. That hits you hire. Every time the camera is on the
:20:10. > :20:15.mend, they are looking at the camera, I felt they are watching us.
:20:16. > :20:19.What would they make of us? 100 years later. I had a sense of, what
:20:20. > :20:36.has changed When I look at the film now, what I
:20:37. > :20:42.find remarkable, every time I see the film, I see something new. If
:20:43. > :20:47.ever one has a debate about the depiction of the horrors of war,
:20:48. > :20:51.which incidentally, not really covered on British Greens, this is
:20:52. > :20:55.the place where we start the discussion. Journalistic truth, the
:20:56. > :21:00.horrors of war, how does one represent the dead? How does one
:21:01. > :21:01.represent the battle? All in the battle of the Somme, still relevant
:21:02. > :21:15.today. This woman feels the connection with
:21:16. > :21:21.the past more than the most. She shares a great-grandfather's love of
:21:22. > :21:27.art and storytelling, to commemorate the centenary, she is preparing an
:21:28. > :21:33.exhibition based around a man and his film. He would be happy he is
:21:34. > :21:38.inspiring younger generations. I think with the farce killing on this
:21:39. > :21:42.year for the anniversary, he would feel it should be made a facile.
:21:43. > :21:48.Maybe not necessarily his work, but what happened, and the fact he was
:21:49. > :21:54.able to go out there and film, they were able to document, really
:21:55. > :21:59.significant. It is not living memory, for me anymore. Still close
:22:00. > :22:09.memory. Really important it is not lost.
:22:10. > :22:18.During this centenary year, Geoffrey Malins' film will be shown in the UK
:22:19. > :22:21.and overseas. It is clear that despite the passage of time, it
:22:22. > :22:26.still has a resonance with today's's audiences. The greatest story
:22:27. > :22:31.remains the tragedy of the First World War and the Battle of the
:22:32. > :22:36.Somme in particular. Geoffrey Malins personality, energy and undoubted
:22:37. > :22:44.courage have combined to a place in this chapter of our history. -- to
:22:45. > :22:45.earn him a place.