War Walks

War Walks is a BBC television documentary series presented by the historian Richard Holmes, then Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University. The series is about battlefields[1] (though it could be questioned whether the Blitz had a battlefield),[2] which are visited by Holmes,[3] and is also about the corresponding battles.[4] The series covers twelve battles. Both the first and the second series are about battles fought by British or English forces (sometimes with foreign allies). Nine of these were fought against German, French or Norman forces. The other three are from British or English civil wars.[5]

War Walks
GenreDocumentary
Presented byProfessor Richard Holmes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes12
Production
ProducersGrant Mansfield
Mark Fielder
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkBBC Two
Original release26 July 1996 (1996-07-26) –
19 December 1997 (1997-12-19)

The first series is about six battles fought in the region sometimes called[6] the fatal avenue in the north of France and the south of Belgium.[7] The second series is about six battles fought in the British Isles, and, in the case of Dunkirk, in the English Channel.[8]

The series included descriptions of the battles, the events leading up to them and the events resulting from them, and the battlefields.

Episodes

Series One (1996)

This series is by BBC Bristol.[9]

  1. Agincourt (1415) (26 July 1996)[10]
  2. Waterloo (1815) (2 August 1996)[11]
  3. Mons and Le Cateau (1914) (9 August 1996)[12]
  4. The Somme (1916) (16 August 1996)[13]
  5. Arras (1940) (23 August 1996)[14]
  6. Operation Goodwood (1944) (30 August 1996)[15]

Series Two (1997)
  1. Hastings (1066) (14 November 1997)[16]
  2. Bosworth Field (1485) (21 November 1997)[17]
  3. Naseby (1645) (28 November 1997)[18]
  4. The Boyne (1690) (5 December 1997)[19]
  5. Dunkirk (1940) (12 December 1997)[20]
  6. The Blitz (1940–41) (19 December 1997)[21]

Books

BBC Books published a book, written by Holmes, to accompany each series:

  • War Walks: From Agincourt to Normandy, published in 1996, accompanies the first series.[22] By 28 September 1996, this book had spent nine weeks in the "Hardbacks" section of "The Times Bestseller List". It was ranked sixth in the list of hardback bestsellers published in The Times on 31 August 1996. It was included, in particular, in the top twenty hardback bestsellers in the lists published in The Times on 31 August and 7, 14, 21 and 28 September 1996, with sales of a total of 2,168 copies reported in the lists during those five weeks.[23][24][25][26][27] This book has been called "excellent".[28]
  • War Walks 2: From the Battle of Hastings to the Blitz, published in 1997, accompanies the second series.[29]

The two books were published in a single volume under the title Complete War Walks: British Battles from Hastings to Normandy by BBC World Wide Ltd in 2003.[30]

References
  1. Jeremy Black, Rethinking Military History, Routledge, 2004, p 34. P W M Freeman and A Pollard, "Why battlefield archaeology?", Fields of Conflict: Progress and Prospect in Battlefield Archaelogy, BAR International Series 958, 2001, p 2
  2. Mark Piekarz. "It's Just a Bloody Field!". Chris Ryan (ed). Battlefield Tourism. Elsevier. 2007. pp 31 & 32.
  3. Jerome de Groot. Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. Routledge. 2009. p 114
  4. A J Pinion, "War Walks 1 & 2" (1999) Minutes of Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Institution, vols 126-127, p 69
  5. Holmes, War Walks, 1996, passim. Holmes, War Walks 2, 1997, passim.
  6. Translation of Charles de Gaulle, Vers l'armée de métier, 1934
  7. Holmes, War Walks: From Agincourt to Normandy, 1996, p 6
  8. Holmes, War Walks 2: From the Battle of Hastings to the Blitz, 1997, p 7
  9. For a review of this series, see 46 History Today, Issues 7-12, p 13
  10. For reviews of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks: Agincourt" in "Choice", The Times, 26 July 1996, p 43; and Stuart Jeffries, "EastEnders go to war", The Guardian, 27 July 1996, p 18.
  11. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks: Waterloo" in "Choice", The Times, 2 August 1996, p 39; and Nancy Banks-Smith, "Holmes on the warpath", The Guardian, 3 August 1996, p 18.
  12. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks: Mons" in "Choice", "The Times, 9 August 1996, p 39.
  13. For reviews of this episode, see Elizabeth Cowley, "War Walks: The Somme" in "Choice", The Times, 16 August 1996, p 39; Vera Rule, "Floral tributes", The Guardian, 17 August 1996, p 18; and Sean Day-Lewis, "Television" (1996) 190 Country Life, issues 31-35, p 58.
  14. For a review of this episode, see Elizabeth Cowley, "War Walks: Arras" in "Choice", The Times, 23 August 1996, p 47.
  15. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks: Goodwood" in "Choice", The Times, 30 August 1996, p 47.
  16. For reviews of this episode, see Matthew Bond, "High on the brow and tall in the saddle", The Times, 17 November 1997, p 51; and A A Gill, Paper View: The Best of the Sunday Times Television Reviews, Weidenfield & Nicolson, London, 2008, ISBN 978-0-297-85449-4, p 249.
  17. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks" in "Television Choice", The Times, 21 November 1997, p 46.
  18. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks" in "Television Choice", The Times, 28 November 1997, p 50.
  19. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks" in "Television Choice", The Times, 5 December 1997, p 54.
  20. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks: Dunkirk" in "Television Choice: Dunkirk beaches revisited", The Times, 12 December 1997, p 50.
  21. For a review of this episode, see Peter Waymark, "War Walks: Blitz" in "Television Choice", The Times, 19 December 1997, p 46
  22. For reviews of this book, see Robin Neillands, "Summoning up the blood", The Times, 3 August 1996, "Weekend" section, 3 August 1996, p 10; and "War Walks", Military Illustrated, No 99: August 1996, p 7 (ISSN 0268-8328).
  23. "Hardbacks" in "The Times Bestseller List" in "Old favourites remain at the top", The Times, 31 August 1996, "Weekend" section, 31 August 1996, p 12
  24. "Hardbacks" in "The Times Bestseller List" in "Do Booker Winners still sell books?", The Times, 7 September 1996, "Weekend" section, 7 September 1996, p 12
  25. "Hardbacks" in "The Times Bestseller List" in "Old Austens are still good runners", The Times, 14 September 1996, "Weekend" section, 14 September 1996, p 12
  26. "Hardbacks" in "The Times Bestseller List", The Times, 21 September 1996, "Weekend" section, 21 September 1996, p 12
  27. "Hardbacks" in "The Times Bestseller List", The Times, 28 September 1996, "Weekend" section, 28 September 1996, p 12
  28. Christopher Hill "Where are we going? International Relations and the voice from below" (1999) 25 Review of International Studies 107 at 120
  29. For a review of this book, see Jeremy Gavron, "A walk through the trenches", The Financial Times, 13/14 December 1996, Section II: FT Weekend, weekend 13/14 December 1996, page vi
  30. Richard Holmes, book reviews, University of York.
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