The issue of whether Joe Barton's drama is true to historical fact is academic here; what matters more is the way in which it depicts the horrors of World War One in a graphic manner, while showing the unbelievable courage of men under fire.
The mainspring of the episode lies in the contrast between what the British soldiers expect, as they try to protect the landscape around Mons, and what they actually encounter. The first part shows the conflicts within the British forces, mostly based on class and national difference. The Australian Fred Steele (Jefferson Hall) comes across as a practical, no-nonsense leader managing to get things done - unlike his British counterpart Dease (Dominic Thorburn), a well-meaning yet ineffectual member of the British upper class vainly trying to keep his troops under control.
Yet such petty conflicts pale into insignificance beside the conflict to come. Director Bruce Goodison adumbrates what is to come through the use of aerial shots - resembling the photos taken by US Army planes during the recent Iraq war - of the lights of the British troops on one side of a river, and the huge German force piling up on the other. We know in advance that the conflict will be an unequal one; and so it proves, as the British are annihilated, forcing Steele to bid a hasty retreat leaving one machine-gunner (Theo Barklem-Briggs) to hold the fort. Nonetheless the British do manage to stall the Germans, due in no small part to the individual heroism of the machine-gunner and an explosives expert (Calum Callaghan).
Shot in deliberately washed-out colors, with a musical score comprised of modern songs summing up the mood of the piece, "The First Day" is based on recollections by members of the Royal Fusiliers of the opening salvos of the war. The episode ends with a tribute to the troops that fought, with shots of the brigade museum at the Tower of London. This is not a pleasant piece to watch: director Goodison has deliberately shown how bloody the conflict actually was. Yet it is both condemnatory yet celebratory in tone - even though it might have been regarded as a defeat, the conflict showed how brave human beings can be under the most extreme circumstances.
The mainspring of the episode lies in the contrast between what the British soldiers expect, as they try to protect the landscape around Mons, and what they actually encounter. The first part shows the conflicts within the British forces, mostly based on class and national difference. The Australian Fred Steele (Jefferson Hall) comes across as a practical, no-nonsense leader managing to get things done - unlike his British counterpart Dease (Dominic Thorburn), a well-meaning yet ineffectual member of the British upper class vainly trying to keep his troops under control.
Yet such petty conflicts pale into insignificance beside the conflict to come. Director Bruce Goodison adumbrates what is to come through the use of aerial shots - resembling the photos taken by US Army planes during the recent Iraq war - of the lights of the British troops on one side of a river, and the huge German force piling up on the other. We know in advance that the conflict will be an unequal one; and so it proves, as the British are annihilated, forcing Steele to bid a hasty retreat leaving one machine-gunner (Theo Barklem-Briggs) to hold the fort. Nonetheless the British do manage to stall the Germans, due in no small part to the individual heroism of the machine-gunner and an explosives expert (Calum Callaghan).
Shot in deliberately washed-out colors, with a musical score comprised of modern songs summing up the mood of the piece, "The First Day" is based on recollections by members of the Royal Fusiliers of the opening salvos of the war. The episode ends with a tribute to the troops that fought, with shots of the brigade museum at the Tower of London. This is not a pleasant piece to watch: director Goodison has deliberately shown how bloody the conflict actually was. Yet it is both condemnatory yet celebratory in tone - even though it might have been regarded as a defeat, the conflict showed how brave human beings can be under the most extreme circumstances.
