88%
8 Reviews
Tomatometer
83%
50+ Ratings
Audience Score
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Ron Cerabona
Sydney Morning Herald
Despite the limitations of a TV budget and scope, this is a well-acted account of a lesser-known story of World War I.
Oct 11, 2020
Full Review
Sarah Hughes
Independent (UK)
The Wipers Times presented them as two men with a shared and anarchic sense of humour and Ben Chaplin and Julian Rhind-Tutt (both excellent) had a great time trading quips and drinks while keeping their lips appropriately stiff.
Oct 11, 2020
Full Review
Sam Wollaston
Guardian
It's an extraordinary true story. Funny, sad, and peculiarly British. And told with an affectionate twinkle. Lovely.
Oct 11, 2020
Full Review
Tom Birchenough
The Arts Desk
Even fleshed out with free-standing cabaret-style sketches, at 90 minutes this sometimes felt as long as waiting for the war to end all wars itself to end.
Rated: 3/5
Oct 11, 2020
Full Review
Jack Seale
Radio Times
A neat way to portray the partnership's comic material.
Oct 11, 2020
Full Review
Christopher Stevens
Daily Mail (UK)
It was a shame to cram so much great material into a one-off. And it's a worse shame that, if Ian Hislop can write like this, he so often prefers to waste his talent on repetitive panel games.
Rated: 4/5
Oct 11, 2020
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Audience Member
A very funny and entertaining film based on a fantastic true story. The way they have used comedy in this film is great. The acting is very good and the directing is great. I love the soundtrack to this film.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
At the start of this Chaplin says to Rhind-Tutt 'We've got plenty of ink, we've got paper, but no copy'. The writers too had paper and ink but no real idea what they wanted to do here. It's not grim enough to be a film about the triumph of the spirit in war - in fact, judging by the explosions the British army is up against boys with fireworks in an abandoned factory in Lancashire - and it's not funny enough to be a comedy either in the mould of the last Blackadder. Instead, it gives in to the sin of self parody of stiff upper lipped British officers leading the charge with dopey working class lads in the ranks scratching their heads at it all. It's an overused trope, the class issue in WWI and it's pummelled into submission here. I half expected Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse to wander on set as a pair of ludicrous senior officers sporting buck teeth and monocles. It's a story worth
telling but it needs to be told better than this. Jolly bad show, chaps.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
Full Review
Serge L
This is a true story and that what makes it a great film. It recounts well enough the time spent in the trenches in french areas fighting the germans (the huns) by our hero and his group. A group that knew and understood the futility, the ironies, the absurdities of the whole venture. The tone of the film is exceptionally well atuned to the story. The story itself is definitely someting to know. The horrors of war are not graphically exposed but are hinted with period photos and films.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/18/17
Full Review
Audience Member
This is a true story and that what makes it a great film. It recounts well enough the time spent in the trenches in french areas fighting the germans (the huns) by our hero and his group. A group that knew and understood the futility, the ironies, the absurdities of the whole venture. The tone of the film is exceptionally well atuned to the story. The story itself is definitely someting to know. The horrors of war are not graphically exposed but are hinted with period photos and films.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
terrific show...although set in war time, its filled with humour and is really more about theatre and performance and art as such than war and battle...well acted including a perfect role for my hero Michael Palin ...a story more than well worth telling and done so in a unique loving fashion...the sort of little show i could look at more than once for sure...bravo and props to the makers and of course to the soldiers in WW1 who fought their pain boredom fears and superiors even to stand up for their right to entertain and survive
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
ron k
People who still care about World War I will never stop looking for one more perspective, one more story or one more description of those terrible days of walking into machine gun fire, being bombed to smithereens or being gassed to death under a blue sky.
It was a time of bayonets and charges. Tens of thousands killed in a day. Hand to hand combat in zero degree temperatures. A whole generation of boys and men gone.
This is a movie presenting a little sense of humor to the madness. It's British humor so it may not appeal to Americans so much but the general effect was an earnest attempt to shed some light on a small corner of the war and pay homage to men who brought a smile where smiles were hard to find and a laugh to men who might have thought it impossible considering the circumstances.
This was a slice of history well done.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
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