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I'm feeling rather shaken, having just watched "They Shall Not Grow Old" on BBC4.

If you've already seen it you'll understand: if not, the film director Peter Jackson took thousands of hours of WW1 footage, cleaned and colourised it, and cut it in with genuine recordings of WW1 soldiers.

The result is, to me the most extraordinary film I've ever seen.

I imagine that many of the regulars on this site will have had close family members who experienced this war or were lost in it.

The film is a very immediate way to understand a what they suffered and how they endured it, and as a a way to honour them I cannot recommend it enough.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0brzkzx/they-shall-not-grow-old, not sure how long it'll be available - I hope for ever!

I've bought DVD copies to give to my kids and my friends.

Yours faithfully


KT17

PS My grandfather Matthew Henry Davies OBE (M), DFC - his job was to lie on the floor of a biplane crate, peeking through a spyhole, looking at and recording the battlefields to send military intelligence back to Army Command. He never spoke of it nor ever wore his medals. We only found out on recently discovered diaries. He survived the war but died a few months before I was born. I was named after him.

No need whatsoever to apologise, I watched the earlier release and have kept it on my recorder.

Moving beyond measure and especially so for those with family involved - we occasionally and hopefully temporarily forget both how lucky we are and how much we owe to so many.

M x

Thanks Kt17, i'll check it out. My Dad worked as an engineer for the RAF in the mid to late 1940's, one of many Irish people to come over and help. He worked fixing the planes and said that many of them were real 'crates'! I can only imagine what those in WW1 were like.

No need to apologise Kt17.

'Lest we forget'.
R x

No apology needed. But please also remember the seamen both above and below the water during that terrible conflict.

Yes I agree. I watched the earlier version and was astounded at the work that had been done to clarify and colour the original footage. Quite remarkable. When it was first shown it was bowdlerised to omit pictures of the carnage in case it offended public sensibilities. The end of the film showed just how the public at home had this cosy idea of a war fought in a gentlemanly fashion on horseback. Unfortunately youngsters (till now) have much the same idea. Let's hope this film disillusions them.

I have been talking about this since I saw the first screening and it is unbelievably moving. The original black and white with everyone moving awkwardly, almost funny, seems to belong to another world, not anything to do with all of us. Jackson's film brings it home, right up to date and shockingly contemporary. It should be seen in every school....

No need to apologise. I saw this in the cinema and I was overwhelmed. I'm a teacher and I based s lesson around it..... together with Paul McCartney 'Pipes of Peace' Christmas Truce' music video. I'm going to do the Holocaust next. Xx

Thank you all for forgiving my putting this non Xword related message in the main forum.

@Manic Mary - their war experiences must have been unutterably dreadful - I just wonder if their stories can ever adequately be told?