Welcome to WW1 Wednesday, otherwise known as weekly themed posts. Been struggling to come up with new content these past weeks, (but cutting myself some slack because I am writing my dissertation, no prizes for guessing the subject) so here’s something I made earlier on Instagram.

This series is one of the two main inspirations (the other being To Kill a Mockingbird) for a WW1 novel I’ve been trying to write for 7 years… that’s another story though. There’s a whole saga in there somewhere.

The Passing Bells is Tony Jordan’s (in my opinion totally underrated) miniseries BBC1, 2014, part of the centenary programmes.

Poet enthusiasts among you may recognise the title alludes to Wilfred Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’.

The youths and protagonists of this series are British Thomas “Tommy” Edwards, and German Michael Lang (played by two young actors now on the rise, Patrick Gibson and Jack Lowden, who recently played Sassoon in Terence Davies Benediction, respectively).

They enlist at the start and fight til the end. Each episode covers a different year of the war. Don’t want to say too much in case you decide to watch it.

It’s beautifully filmed and I particularly love the music because it reflects the progression of the story so well. It’s been described as full of the same-old stuff, and too simplistic (the majority of reviews seemed negative when I ventured onto google), and maybe that’s true, but how many new angles can you take on an event so often covered, only so much can happen.

And that’s part of the point besides, as the mirror-image nature of the series demonstrates.

I thought it was brilliant, there could have been swearing, some more realistic injuries and that sort of authenticity, but this one’s focus is the emotional experience of the war. Which, to be honest, is probably why I love it so much. I’m a sucker for people stories.

Anyway, totally recommend, even if just to hear the music. It’s quite possibly my favourite soundtrack ever.