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The Passing Bells
Penny Crayon
Posts: 36,158 Forum Member
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I haven't seen a thread on this - is anyone else watching? I think it's incredibly well done - I love WW1 novels and dramas. I think this series is depicting it in a way I've never seen before. Showing both sides of the battle and both families at home.
I had to watch the first three on catch up, I knew it was coming but hadn't realised it had started - it seems to be on at a bit of an odd time - I'd have thought it worthy of a prime time slot TBH. Love the actors playing the main characters - I think it's quite exceptional.
I had to watch the first three on catch up, I knew it was coming but hadn't realised it had started - it seems to be on at a bit of an odd time - I'd have thought it worthy of a prime time slot TBH. Love the actors playing the main characters - I think it's quite exceptional.
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Did you not find it a bit strange that they seem to have found battalion's of non-smoking soldiers on both the British and German sides - totally unrealistic
I'm watching it too and have been wondering why no thread on it. Perhaps it is the time slot, as you pointed out? I've found it very emotional...all those young boys, on both sides, going off to fight a war for their respective countries with enthusiasm and anticipation. And then the reality of the horror they face! At times, it's almost too painful to watch.
And how well the two main characters are portrayed. In just a few years they turn from fresh faced, innocent youngsters into war weary, disillusioned men.
I suppose that the drama can't be too realistic because of the time slot. All troops were given free cigarettes and I imagine that most of them smoked. Although it's almost ironic that they protect us from images of smoking when the soldiers were facing the hell of all hells!
I noticed this last night too!
I think it's been well done considering they've had to condense the episodes into half hour slots.
I must admit I was confused in the episode where the German protagonist was over in Russia, yet the Germans our brave Tommy was facing on the western front were wearing the same regiment number "630" on their helmet coverings - left me wondering who was really where.
I was very moved by the new young British replacement who said that he was 16, and had to try 3 different recruiting stations before he could enlist, he looked about 14!
I sat up and took notice when the German boy, Michael's outfit were on the Eastern front, at Tarnow.
My mother was from there, and I've been there and seen both German and Russian graves, turned into small shrines from WW1.
I thought that the story-line where the Polish nurse from Kraków was working at an Allied field hospital and became pregnant by the British boy Tommy, a tad incredulous.
Would she really be able to quit in 1917, and be allowed to travel to Britain to live with Tommy's family?
Last one tonight, will they both make it through, or will Tommy or Michael, or both, get killed to ram home the horrors of the Great War?
I'm reasonably sure that after that engagement in Poland, at Tarnow, a corporal or sergeant tells Michael that they are being transferred to the Western Front, but have a period of leave first.
Sorry Poland, my bad.
However, in the scene where Michael and his unit are fighting the Russians in the maze like building they are all wearing a 630 cover on their helmets, then we cut to the next scene which is the aftermath of the gas attack on the western front and all the Germans leaving their trenches during the truce are also wearing the same covers.
I'm assuming its some sort of unit numbering which was why it confused me.
I saw the poppies at the Tower of London in early September and they completely took my breath away.
In tears here too.
How lovely that you saw the London poppies
On the whole I found it unengaging and contrived - I don't think it was meant to be a convincing story - but they tried to deal with too great an expanse of time in episodes much too short. My overall impression was of a First World War through the eyes of the Harmony Hair Spray Ad people, and of 21st century sensibilities behind the depiction of a 20th century war. The soundtrack was particularly wheedling and intrusive. People complain that Blackadder doesn't give a sense of what the war was like, which of course it doesn't, but at least you can have a laugh, and it makes similar 'human' points much more effectively.
As I said, the same unit engaged in Poland were transferred to France/Belgium after going on leave, so the 630 helmet covers that you saw in the Tarnow building were the same ones on the same unit on the Western front.
I was admittedly a bit cut up when they both died at the end in that manner but it did make it all hit home as there were more sad stories than happy ones.
I don't think I could possibly disagree more. I thought it was done very well within the given parameters.
Such a poignant ending - contrived ? - possibly but I don't think I've ever seen a WW1 portrayal that has depicted such realism (without gore and profanity - and I've seen a lot) - it was simply done in a way that was suitable and apt for all ages.
Penny I think you hit the nail on the head here (BIB) - this was an incredibly moving and thought provoking series, really getting to the heart of how WW1 impacted on normal people. Sons, brothers, fathers and the families that they left behind. They were not faceless soldiers, but people, who all had a story to tell.
By putting it on at 7pm it made it accessible to children, and was portrayed in a way that was not grisly and realistic in the brutality, but gave a real sense of the emotional loss and terror that those poor boys would have been experiencing.
I think this is something that should be shown in schools, well written and totally deserving of awards for writing, acting and directing - that ending was heartbreaking.
I think you missed the point of the whole thing completely.
The 9 year old didn't know much about the Great War, but watched this and now wants to go to on Sunday to pay their respect to all the fallen men.
It worked for educational purposes to the kids, I know a few kids have watched it and was the talking point of the playground.
The only thing that upset the 7 year old was tommy/michel dying on the field.
Ok so there might be a few who might say it's rubbish,but at that time of night they can only show so much,but it has worked on telling the story to the young and older alike.