Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Tommies

Drama

Drama: Historical

Drama series following the lives of those on and behind the battlefront of World War I.

Drama series following the lives of those on and behind the battlefront of World War I. Created by Jonathan Ruffle.

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Pippa Nixon

Nicholas Murchie

Indira Varma

John Dougall

David Sturzaker

Yavor Baharov

Shaun Mason

John Bowler

Tom Forrister

David Hunter

Jonquil Panting

Jonathan Ruffle

Tommies: 24 April 1917

24/04/2017

24 April 1917

BBC Radio 4 - Tommies, 24 April 1917

Night falls on a race to the Macedonian front.

24 April 1917: Drama based on war diaries and eye-witness accounts, tracing one day in the Great War. Night falls on a race to the Macedonian front. From April 2017. Episode 3 of 3.

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.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Tommies

24 April 1917

Contributors

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4