GamerTab That was an excellent one.

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Rpgcatech Disapointment

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

mikeburnsgln Where to begin, where to begin...OK, let's start at the start. I guess the producers thought it would be a cute effect to give the German protagonist an English accent, so that we could see the similarities. However, rather than being cute it's confusing. Probably deliberately so, but as a plot device it falls flat. Once in miraculously-always-clean uniform, the distinction is made.Next. Our protagonists on both sides volunteer in 1914, and are rapidly in the front line. This could be correct for a German Kriegsfreiwilliger, but was highly likely not to be the case for a British 1914 volunteer - the first units raised in 1914 didn't see action until 1915, and many not until the Somme.There's so much that's wrong about it, I'll just list a few of the many, many massive clangers:Trenches apparently untouched by 7 days of bombardment.Soldiers who, we are told, haven't been able to eat or drink for 7 days somehow manage to find enough water to shave.Soldiers in the line practically all the time.A British front-line dugout that was roomy, well-lit, contained bunkbeds, with soldiers sleeping on mattresses under blankets, in their underwear, right before a big battle.Everyone dying at the Somme aside from out two protagonists, who are then free to wander around the battlefield.A West Indies Regiment corporal commanding British privates (err, nope, not in WW1, really, that could never have happened) for a prisoner escort through a miraculously untouched British-looking pine forest just behind the lines. Apparently the German lines were just beyond the untouched wood. If you only know one thing about WW1, it's that there were parallel lines of trenches from the North Sea to the Swiss border, so the idea that the German trenches were just beyond a wood IN THE BRITISH REAR is totally, ridiculously laughable.

grantss Bland and superficial.This drama series looks at World War 1 from the perspective of a few British and German soldiers and civilians - the fighting, the effects on families and relationships, the home front. Covers the entire duration of the war (1914-18).Had the potential to be a WW1 version of Band of Brothers, but falls very far short. Not engaging at all - you don't know much about the characters. Character development is quite superficial. As a result you don't get that feeling of camaraderie that was so essential to Band of Brothers.Plot development - the series just lurches from one scene to another. There is very attempt to link the series to actual historic events or create a sense of historic relevance or accuracy.Not very realistic in its battle scenes either. Certainly nothing like the terrors and mass casualties that actually occurred in the trench warfare of WW1.For a much better, grittier and far more realistic portrayal of WW1 from a soldier's perspective watch the mini-series "ANZACs" (1985) instead.

Krefty-154-394411 This mini-series was, apparently, written for young adults, and this is why it appears so sanitised. Other reviewers have derided its cleanliness, and lack of realism. I personally found it fascinating, despite these valid criticisms. It was meant to show "parallel lives", and suggest that ordinary people were not natural enemies. The total senselessness of the war was brought out at the end where Tom and Michael (the names are common in both England and Germany) attacked each other. Realistically, two soldiers in similar circumstances would have probably avoided each other, but this wasn't the point; the war had reduced them to unthinking machines. No happy Hollywood ending, in respect to the millions who died. The acting, uniforms, locations were all excellent.

tonyontour247 The first person on here to review this, (Mr Mcinsley), got it absolutely right, but I would go further; it's so dumbed down and insipid as to be pointless. This series is supposed to follow the lives of a German and a British soldier during WW1, which I expected to be a moving, gritty and realistic story; how wrong could I be? The main characters are drab and stereotyped, along with the other supporting cast. The battlefield sets look artificial, the uniforms are inexplicably spotless, even the trenches are carefully sculpted. Nothing looks remotely convincing. No one is smoking. Just about every soldier smoked backed then but I don't recall that anyone lights up. No one gets cut, bruised, maimed or blown to pieces. That's what happened - that's what should be made clear to the viewer. The screenplay is laughable. Because it is pre-watershed it's devoid of any believable dialogue or any credible action scenes. It's like some corny censored war film from the 1960's, where anyone who dies gets an instant painless demise, no one swears and all the main characters are such fine and jolly nice young men. Pass the sick bag.A few random samples of what is so wrong with this series. The main British Tommy character, (called Tom just for extra cheese value), at one point is part of a stretcher party, taking two wounded stretcher cases to a field hospital, (where our hero's girlfriend just happens to be stationed, how handy is that?). Everyone is so Clean. The wounded in the stretchers have whiter than white shirts and bandages without a spot of blood or dirt. All of the stretcher party have immaculate uniforms. They look like something from a parade ground. At one point a new recruit starts to itch having only just arrived and is cheerfully informed by our hero that it's merely lice; he hasn't been there five minutes yet his freshly pressed clothing is crawling with vermin. The German hero (Michael) is sent to the Somme to face the British attack. He and his comrades wear Pickelhaube helmets. These were virtually unused by this time in the war. You will not likely find a photo of Germans wearing these at the Somme. They also should have had the regiment numbers in green. They were only red at the very start of the war. They would have definitely had reissued ones with removable spikes which they would have detached by order. These are just a few basic facts that the BBC got wrong. It might seem anal but this is supposed to be a big budget series and it lacks even fundamental research. Tommy also inevitably ends up at the first day of the Somme - now there's a surprise - where he manages to witness the close hand death of each one of his comrades in turn as they cross no man's land. It seems no WW1 drama is complete unless the protagonists go through the Somme carnage. In this case though the carnage is presented as a game of toy soldiers. Tom Tommy survives it all by staggering into a shell hole, where for reasons unknown, he falls asleep. A matter of metres away, his German counterpart hero has also decided to have a snooze after the collapse of the British advance. Once he wakes up he reckons it will be a good idea to climb up onto the parapet of his trench to see what's happened to all those British soldiers he was busy machine gunning earlier. Meanwhile Tom Tommy also decides it would be a great wheeze to climb out if his hiding place and stand up in the middle of no man's land for a look around. At that point I switched off. No one would do that; it really is that simple. It was one ludicrous event too many. Simple is also how I would describe the script writers of this dreadful yarn.I can't imagine what possessed the BBC to make this nonsense. Either make a realistic drama portraying the real suffering and horror the soldiers faced, along with the trauma and tragedy endured by their families and loved ones, or don't bother. It is as well there are no survivors of that conflict left alive to see this as I would imagine they would feel deeply insulted by it. I certainly feel that it's an affront to an adult's intelligence. Truly a lamentable and vapid piece of non drama which snubs the memory of the participants of the First World War. The BBC should be ashamed for such blatant misrepresentation of what our recent ancestors went through.