55 - Sapphire and Steel

Was Blackadder Goes Forth the most powerful portrayal of the First World War ever put on television? In this episode of Oh! What a Lovely Podcast, Jessica, Chris and Angus take a look at the enduring legacy of Blackadder Goes Forth. First broadcast on BBC One in 1989, the series blended sharp wit and biting satire with a surprisingly moving look at life – and death – on the Western Front. The team discuss how the show evolved, the historical realities behind its humour, and why that unforgettable final scene still resonates decades later. They also explore how Blackadder helped shape popular perceptions of the Great War, influencing how generations have come to understand the conflict and its soldiers. So, was Blackadder Goes Forth just a comedy – or something far more profound?   References: Badsey, S. (2014) The Two Western Fronts: The First World War and the Second World War in British History and Memory. London: Continuum. Barker, P. (1991) Regeneration. London: Viking. BBC (1964) The Great War [Television series]. London: BBC. Bet-El, I. (1999) Conscripts: Lost Legacies of the Great War. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. Iserwood, I. (2017) Remembering the Great War: The Nation, the Public and the First World War Commemoration. London: Bloomsbury. Newman, S. (dir.) (2025) The ChoralFaulks, S. (1993) Birdsong. London: Hutchinson.

How did the First World War bring down Europe's great dynasties, and how did the BBC retell that story on screen? In this episode of Oh What a Lovely Podcast, we look at Fall of Eagles, the 1974 BBC drama that charts the decline of the Romanovs, Hohenzollerns, and Habsburgs. Across 13 episodes, the series follows the personal rivalries, dynastic struggles, and political failures that led to the collapse of three empires during the Great War. Created by John Elliot and produced by Stuart Burge, the show boasted an impressive cast and scripts from writers such as Jack Pulman (I, Claudius) and Troy Kennedy Martin (The Italian Job). Critics praised its scope and performances, even if it sometimes focused more on palace drama than wider historical forces. Join Angus, Jessica, and Chris as they discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and legacy of this ambitious attempt to dramatise the road to 1914 and the end of Empire.   Links: The Fall of Empires, BBC (1973) I, Claudius, BBC (1976) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) The Sweeny (1975-78) The Italian Job (1969) Oh! What a lovely war (1969) Blackadder Goes Forth, BBC (1989) Britain's Great War, BBC (2014) Adrian Gregory, The Last Great War (2008) Alan Clark, Lions Led By Donkeys (1961) Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987) Television Heaven

In this episode of Oh! What a Lovely Podcast, Angus, Chris, Jessica, and returning guest Ann-Marie Einhaus discuss War-Time in Our Street by J. E. Buckrose.   Set in a fictional Yorkshire village, these stories capture everyday resilience, humour, and quiet courage — from blackout chapel services and food shortages to romances and small acts of kindness amid wartime hardships.   Buckrose, the pen name of Annie Edith Jameson, was a prolific writer who produced more than forty novels exploring domestic life and family tensions with gentle humour. War-Time in Our Street offers a fascinating glimpse of how ordinary people became part of the wider war effort.     ReferencesJE Buckhouse,  WarTime In Our Street  (1917) – Down Our Street Dorothy Whipple, High Wages (1930) Dad's Army  (1968-1977) Sandra Kemp, Charlotte Mitchell, and David Trotter, Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction (1997) Sapper, Sergeant Michael Cassidy RE (1915) Robert Harris, Act of Oblivion (2022) Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995) - Shrines of Gaiety (2022) Angela Brazil Eden Phillpotts, The Humand Boy and the War (1919) Jesse Pope Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) Ann-Marie Einhaus & Barbara Korte, The Penguin Book of First World War Stories: From Arthur Machen to Julian Barnes (2007)

What do young adults think of First World War fiction aimed at them? In this episode of Oh What a Lovely Podcast, we hand the mic to a group of young readers to hear their thoughts on The Boy I Loved by William Hussey, a novel exploring the impact of war on love, identity and loss. After their thoughtful reviews, Chris, Jessica and Angus reflect on the responses and what they reveal about how the war is understood today.

What makes a 50-year-old book on WWI still essential reading? In this episode, Angus, Jessica, and Chris are joined by Ian Isherwood and Steven Trout, authors of But It Still Goes On: Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory at 50. We revisit Fussell's classic, exploring its legacy, impact, and the debates it continues to spark in the world of war literature and memory studies.   References:Ian Isherwood and Steven Trout, But it Still Goes On: Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory at 50, The Journal of Military History Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory --- Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War--- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System--- Doing Battle: The Making of a SkepticFrederic Manning, Her Privates WeSiegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston Max Ploughman, A Subaltern on the SommeRobert Graves, Goodbye To All ThatDan Todman, The Great War: Myth and MemoryRC Sherriff, Journey's EndSamuel Hynes, A War ImaginedCharles Edmonds, A Subaltern's War

What happens when a controversial real-life figure becomes the centre of one of the BBC's most politically charged wartime dramas? In this episode, we revisit The Monocled Mutineer (1986), Alan Bleasdale's adaptation of the story of Percy Toplis — alleged ringleader of the 1917 Étaples mutiny. The four-part series drew huge audiences but quickly became a flashpoint in debates over historical accuracy, media bias, and the BBC's role in shaping national memory. We unpack the drama's reception, the historical evidence (or lack thereof) behind Toplis's role in the mutiny, and how the show explored themes of class, power, and military discipline in the First World War. References:Emma Hanna, The Great War on the Small Screen: Representing the First World War in Contemporary Britain (2009) John Buchan, The 39 Steps (1915) William Hussey, The Boy I loved (2025) Boys from the Black Stuff (1982) Dope Girls (2025) The Crimson Field (2014) Hornblower (1998-2003) Masters of the Air (2024) Sharpe (1993-2008)

What was the real story behind the BBC series Dope Girls? In this episode of Oh What a Lovely Podcast, we dive into the world of Soho's underground nightlife in the 1920s, as seen in the BBC's new drama Dope Girls. The series takes inspiration from Marek Kohn's book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground and brings to life the turbulent years after the First World War, when jazz clubs, crime, and vice flourished in London. Joining us to separate fact from fiction is Professor Matthew Houlbrook, a leading historian of 20th-century Britain. We explore the real figures and stories behind Dope Girls, the shifting social landscape of post-war Britain, and how the show reflects the era's struggles with gender, crime, and morality. References: Marek Kohn, Dope Girls: The Birth Of The British Drug Underground  Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety Matt Houlbrook, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 Downton Abbey Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Long Weekend: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939 Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests

What happens when a late-twentieth-century detective novelist develops strong opinions about the First World War?   This month Angus, Jessica and Chris discuss Reginald Hill's The Wood Beyond (1995) and the short story 'Silent Night' from the collection A Candle for Christmas (2023). Along the way, we consider the significance of the genealogy boom to the historiography of the war, the politics of the Shot at Dawn campaign and the tradition of novelists inventing fictional regiments.   References: Midsummer Murders The Sweeney Who Do You Think You Are? Not Forgotten (2005-2009) Pat Barker, Regeneration (1991) Sebastian Japrisot, A Very Long Engagement (1994) Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong (1993) Blackadder Goes Forth (1983) The Monocled Mutineer (1986) Alan Clark, The Donkeys (1961) Reginald Hill, Arms and the Women (1999) ________. On Beulah Height (1998) ________. Recalled to Life (1992) ________. Exit Lines (1984) Helen McCartney, Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War (2005) Peter Simkins, Kitchener's Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914-1916 (2007) Arthur Marwick, The Deluge: British Society and the First World War (1965) Susan Grayzel, Women's Identities at War (1999) Tammy Proctor, Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War (2003) Alison Fell, Women as Veterans in Britain and France after the First World War (2018) Oh! What a lovely podcast, Black Hand Gang Oh! What a lovely podcast, The Warm Hands of Ghosts

What happens when you combine the First World War with a 1970s cult sci-fi classic?   This month we watched 'Assignment 2' from the television series Sapphire & Steel which features a ghostly First World War soldier haunting an abandoned railway station. Along the way we discuss differing approaches to sacrifice, the idea of an 'unjust' death, and where the show sits on our ongoing 'creepy' list.

What do you do when a student brings you a collection of family papers in a Harrods tin?  This month, Chris, Angus and Jessica speak to Professor Ian Isherwood about his new book, The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front. Along the way, we discuss developing digital humanities projects, the involvement of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in rambling and the proliferation of bad war poetry. References: Ian Isherwood, The Battalion: Citizen Soldiers at War on the Western Front Ian Isherwood, The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs Michael Roper, Afterlives of War: A Descendant's History