‘How did so many soldiers survive the trenches?’ was the launch content for the BBC’s WW1 Centenary digital campaign. I wrote, produced and directed Dan Snow travelling back in time to analyse life in the trenches. The short-films were the most successful of the BBC’s digital campaign.
Starting off on the steps of the Imperial War Museum, clasping a real-life Tommy’s letter home to his parents, Dan tells the story of British soldier , Percy Boswell who did not survive the war in the trenches.
From here, we choose to change the received narrative and explain how almost certain death in trench warfare is a misconception. Most soldiers who fought in the trenches were rarely exposed to deadly violence.
To do this, we took Dan ‘back in time’ using a filming technique of ‘match-framing’ as he approached the camera, jumping from modern-day Lambeth, Percy’s home, to Belgium in the early 20th century, and eventually, the British Trench on the frontline of The Somme.
Farmer’s fields in Suffolk stood in for Belgium and a meticulously-constructed replica trench stood in for the site of Percy’s last stand. We also projected archival footage onto the hay bails of a barn to recreate the atmosphere of the back-trench billets.
The whole shoot took place over a single day, as we travelled from Lambeth, London to near Ipswich. We shot across five locations in London (including the now defunct Elephant & Castle tunnels) and four locations in Ipswich. We used a highly-mobile filming team, using three cameras, with a dedicated camera on legs for the ‘walking match frame’ sequence.
Combined with meticulous archival research and assets from the Imperial War Museum, including Percy Boswell’s letters, plus official statistics; we were able to kick-start the campaign with a myth-busting, surprising tale that set the scene for viewing WWI with brand-new perspectives.
Michael Orwell 