2014

ITV’s World War One: The People’s Story
Courtesy of ITV and Shiver Productions

Photo courtesy of ITV and Shiver Productions

ITV begins their extraordinary World War One centenary coverage with World War One: The People’s Story beginning Sunday 10 August at 9:00PM. 

Marking the centenary of the outbreak of the war in 1914, the experiences of men and women, young and old, from across Britain and the social classes that divided society at the time, are vividly brought to life in 4×60 series The Great War: The People’s Story, produced by Shiver [ITV Studios].

With narration from Olivia Colman, The Great War: The People’s Story tells the real-life stories of soldiers, from privates to officers, their wives and girlfriends left behind, and people from Britain’s villages and cities. They are portrayed by a cast of actors including Alison Steadman, Daniel Mays, Claire Foy, Brian Cox, Romola Garai, MyAnna Buring and Matthew McNulty, who speak their words as they were written in their diaries and letters.

These moving accounts, revealing their intimate thoughts and feelings, offer a raw insight into the profound impact of being caught up in a conflict that would change their lives – and Britain – forever. Sourced from archives and libraries across the country, selected in partnership with Imperial War Museums, which provided much of the material, and brought to life by actors – each story conveys the hopes, fears, heroism and tragedies of countless ordinary British people… made all the more powerful by the fact that every word is real.  

Daniel Mays stars in episodes 1 & 2 (to air Sunday 17 August).

Team DM

Common Tonight on BBC One 9PM

Don’t miss Common this evening at 9PM on BBC One. This powerful drama explores the effect of Joint Enterprise on families and communities.

DURATION: 1 HOUR, 30 MINUTES
Multi-award-winning writer Jimmy McGovern’s brand new film based on the UK’s controversial joint enterprise law.

17-year-old Johnjo gives his cousin Tony and his mates Colin and Kieran a last-minute lift in his brother Patrick’s car. They tell him they’re going for pizza; Johnjo doesn’t know that they’re going to ‘have a word’ with a local loudmouth who needs putting in his place. As Johnjo waits in the car, Kieran takes offence with an innocent bystander, Thomas Ward, who is fatally stabbed.

The murder victim is the eldest child of Margaret and Tommy Ward, who has become estranged from his family after a bitter divorce. Struggling to make ends meet on her own, Margaret is nevertheless determined to fight through bureaucracy and the cool indifference of the banks to give Thomas the send-off he deserves.

Johnjo makes his own way to the police station and asks for DI Hastings. A career copper used to doing battle with ‘no comment’, Hastings can’t believe his luck as Johnjo lays the blame squarely with Kieran. But Hastings wants everyone possible to be tried for murder, and with the joint enterprise doctrine at his disposal, that includes Johnjo.