Programme Index

Discover 11,123,931 listings and 293,568 playable programmes from the BBC

Tommies

24 April 1917

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra

Night falls on a race to the Macedonian front, in this story by Jonathan Ruffle.

If they hadn't been too late to save Serbia, there would never have been 160,000 British troops stationed near Salonika, in what is now Northern Greece.

And if it weren't for one deserting Bulgarian soldier, Celestine de Tullio would be on her way home to England today, in widow's weeds.

But the British troops in Salonika have done so much digging in, and so little actual fighting, that they're universally mocked as 'The Gardeners of Salonika'.

So Celestine's need for action can only help them. Can't it?

Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.

And through it all, we'll follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.

Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting. Show less

Contributors

Sergeant Celestine de Tullio:
Pippa Nixon
Eben Fossett:
Nicholas Murchie
Commentator:
Indira Varma
Colonel Sharpe:
John Dougall
Captain Bosanquet:
David Sturzaker
Bulgarian Deserter:
Yavor Baharov
Knocker:
John Bowler
Checkpoint Clerk:
Tom Forrister
Producer:
David Hunter

Brand

Tommies

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More