Happy Christmas (War is over): To (belatedly) coincide with the 90th anniversary of ‘The Battle of the Somme’ (both the event and the film), Alex Fitch is discussing the silent movie and its recent restoration with Dr. Toby Haggith (Imperial War Museum) and Andrew Robertshaw (National Army Museum). To make the film more accessible to modern viewers Toby has been involved with the rediscovery of the film’s original score and the commissioning of a new one, while Andrew has made a documentary re-editing the scenes of the movie into the order in which they were filmed to give the audience a unique insight into the making of the world’s first feature length documentary.

Links: Wikipedia page on the film
Andrew’s page about the battle and the film at the National Army Museum website
Imperial War Museum microsite about the battle

Originally broadcast 21st December 2006 (mp3 format, 26mb)