What an excellent production, acting and attention to detail. It shows those incredible 37 days between the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and the start of World War I. The self interest and machiavellian machinations of the so called "great powers" that lead to over 16 million deaths, is scarcely to believed but is all true. Those that think Churchill a great man should realise he and others like von Moltke, the Kaiser, the Czar and Emperor Franz Josef lived for war, ignored the suffering to come all in the name of self aggrandisement and self interest. This excellent show will show all this but people at the time were led and manipulated by patriotism (always a dangerous place in which to invest one's life!), to believe it was a just cause. It shows how quickly events can lead to a place of no return which is where we are now vis a vis Russia and the Crimea. For me Ian McDiarmid as the Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, is particularly well worth the mention of great acting in this show. He is utterly believable. As for Rainer Sellin as the Kaiser and the actor playing Franz Josef, it's like looking at the actual people from history. Well done the casting people. All in all, a marvellous and accurate portrayal of events. Should be played in all schools.
