I'm not sure why so many feel the need for spoiler alerts. Do you NOT know about WWI, the Armistice, Guns of August, etc.? If not, then you probably need a spoiler to appreciate this. Anyway, the drama is top notch and the other features (maps, real-life voices of Vets, etc. ) are well done. Music to me added an interesting twist, but nothing to worry about really. The acting & directing are spectacular. My only regret was that there were only three segments. it would be nice someday to see something similar from the German perspective. Even if you have just a passing interest in this era, this is well worth watching.

I enjoyed the series as entertainment but became too irritated by the historical inaccuracy. Not so much of the war itself but of the social relationships between the officers and their men. In episode one they portray the Australian officer as a bolshie individualist - some of his men might have been - but Australian officers were schooled in exactly the same way as their English counterparts and had attitudes to match. There is no way that officers would have taken the lip offered by their men as shown in the series. Such men would have been tied to artillery wheels for their impertinence. Nurses were given the rank of lieutenant and would not have fraternized openly with other-ranks - although there would have been some secretive liaisons behind the matron's back for sure. Capital punishment courts martial was a formal procedure and not awarded in the field as portrayed in episode 2. The Northern Irish army chaplain would not have taken kindly to being addressed in the manner of a Catholic Priest. Not on the Somme. And as a major he would not have accepted back-chat from a private either. *As a small side note on this, the Ulster volunteer contingent had actually named a part of the front line the Pope's Nose, so as to encourage themselves in the assault.And the private with the Mohican helmet? in 1916? are you serious? He would have been up on a charge for not wearing his regulation helmet straight.As for the Germans marching towards the bridge in formation order. Argghh. I can understand them being ambushed whilst on the march - and I think this is what actually happened - they were caught in a railway cutting or such like. So no. Not brilliant. Entertaining, yes. Maybe even a little sinister if it is insinuating lost values.

Just watched all three episodes on Netflix.Exceptionally well produced, directed and acted. Production values are very good for TV.I hope that if a season II is produced that they show the horror of poison gas used by both sides during the war as well as the fledgling use of airplanes as weapons of war.The use of recorded WWI veterans voices is very moving. As was the use of actual pictures and video blended into show. Not sure I like the introduction of modern music, but I understand the need to use objects to drawer younger viewers.Does anyone know if more episodes are in production? Thanks

This is exactly why the BBC shouldn't be making programmes like this. The idea is to instill a bit of pride as well as remembrance in what our forefathers faced and dealt with.The BEF circa 1914 was not an army designed to fight large scale continental battles, it was designed to police a VAST Empire where in individual field craft and ability played a far larger role than the blunderbuss approach of the continental system (mass conscription).The BEF was meant as an auxiliary, almost, to the MUCH larger French Army on it's right flank. Like in 1940, the rapid collapse of the French inevitably put the much smaller BEF in a precarious position. The Germans swamped the British position at Mons but were stopped directly in their tracks.The British Army was seen as inconsequential by the Germans due to it's size and ordnance but the battle at Mons had quickly made it clear to the them (they lost upwards of 6 men to every one of ours) that they had been roundly beaten and had missed their chance to wrap up the French army in its entirety. Thanks to the stand at Mons, the French were able to consolidate their withdrawal (after the French 5th Army randomly decided to rout) which allowed for the counter attack at the battle of the Marne.As for the programme itself... average.