The Crimson Field, what did you think?

I am finding it OK,

Maybe now the characters have started to divulge more of their personal stories it will beef up a bit.

As for the cleanliness one soldier did comment it was summertime and therefore we could the opposite of clean during harsher weather months, just a thought. There would be cleanliness on some wards, hence they keep showing the huge amount of sheets blowing in the wind. I think they are portraying the emotion of war as opposed to the gore of war on purpose, at the moment.

I just think how different Surname Jones looks in this show, she is normally quite attractive but this hair do certainly makes her look , well, nothing much like her.

Very sad and thought-provoking, a bit like Mash without the humour. It may have gone on a bit long. The story lines are, perhaps, getting a bit thin.

I am enjoying it mainly but agree re the cleanliness and stereotypes. Possibly better reread Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, about her time as a VAD in WW1. I think it is essential never to forget this awful waste of life, but with my cynical hat on, I suspect that the media overkill has an eye to repeats of all these programmes over the next four years. Always a centennial to remember and more mileage out of the initial investment.

It's not perfect but I am actually enjoying it!

I must admit I'm not enjoying the drama particularly - too predictable and too clean!

The whole Irish thread was weak and seems to have been put in to tick a box. I am in the whole disappointed with the series and watch it as a recording so I can fast forward when things get too tedious.

Yes, losing interest too. Thought it might hot up a bit, but apparently not. Too much gazing into space-type acting.

I don't think I'd put myself through that experience goldengirl.

The young man who was led off to be shot reminded me of my visit to Poperinghe where you can visit a cell and listen to the story of a teenager in a similar position. After listening to the story you go out to the courtyard where the sentence was carried out. It was horrendous but equally awful for those who carried out the sentence. The cell 'bed' was covered in poppies left by visitors and photos of those who had for one reason or another died in this way. I'll never forget it.

It still seems to look too clean and tidy to me - the nurses uniforms stay too uncreased (pollycotton?). A bit like Call the Midwife but flatter, less depth of character. Still hoping it'll improve and grow on me.

I'm losing interest too, not enough to grip you.
I watched Fargo on Channel 4 which was brilliant and flicked through Crimson Field on iplayer.

Granjura I think they believe he blew his own hand up deliberately so he would get sent away from the front. Poor bloke, whether he did or not.

I was trying to get a set of one of the Regeneration trilogy for my book group this week, but the library has had a run on Pat Barker this month. Not surprisingly! I wonder what I did with my own copies.

OH just dug out the trilogy by Pat Barker for me to read, starting with 'regeneration' about the horrors of that terrible war some call 'the great war'.

Really moving last night due to the soldier who panicked , shell-shocked and deserted- and is taken away to be shot for cowardice. Nowadays, he would be treated for post traumatic stress disorder.

Not sure if any of you read the French book about the soldiers maiming themselves severely to get away from the front. And of course the book which most marked me as a teenager 'All quiet on the Western Front' by Heinrich REmarque, a German soldier and objector.

How did I manage that? I thought I'd managed to control the habit of double posting.

I didn't bother last night - watched Endeavour instead and wasn't thrilled with that either.

I didn't bother last night - watched Endeavour instead and wasn't thrilled with that either.

I've watched it but find that there is nothing/no one really holding my interest. The matron and the sister seem to alternate between being slightly sinister and being caring and sympathetic, and I just don't care about any of them.

I don't think I'll bother again.

I am finding it hard going now
Durhamjen I agree that the insubordinate behaviour seems to being ignored. This seems to happen with the soldiers as well as nurses. There is a level of answering back that I do not think would have been tolerated in that time.

Not to mention the discussion about homosexuality between the soldier and the nurse.

Finding this really heavy going, not sure I will watch any more, it is so slow and really lacks any true emotion, I think.

I wondered if they had been sent out there because they had been disobedient in their previous posts. My mother would have said "They would have been sacked if they'd talked like that to matron." I suppose she did try to sack one of them.
I'd like to know how they managed to have so many chamber pots.

I suspect this first episode is set at the very beginning of the war when everyone thought it would 'be over by Christmas'. I enjoyed the first episode as an introduction to the characters but will be disappointed if things don't look up as we get deeper into the conflict.

As for characters being 'one dimensional' I thought there was quite a complexity introduced for a first episode and I certainly saw two-sides of several characters being portrayed.

There is no argument from me durhamjen on there being many programmes showing the gruesome reality of WW1, and I think it is fantastic that it is on the school curriculum and school children are doing research and making visits. Which makes my comments about The Crimson Field more pertinent I think, it looked too sanitised, no mud, and the characters were one dimensional. Unless it improves hugely, it is not going to show a very accurate portrayal of a field hospital in WW1 I feel. My brother has done a great deal of research, and when he visited the grave of our Great Uncle who died in 1916 it was oddly moving to realise that my brother was the first family member to visit the grave ( this was in 1989), or grandparents were never able to visit. Great Uncle was just a boy like all of them, 20 the same age as my son.

The Antiques Roadshow just before was very moving and what really finished me off was the playing of Karl Jenkins "Benedictus,"(from the Armed Man.)
The cello plays this theme at the start it is just amazing as is the choral input.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc1Zoz-NUro