"(Commentary) Peter Watkins' powerful drama documentary The War Game was made for BBC Television in 1965." "As a film, it is very much within a political context, that context being the Cold War, which terrified the world from the early 1950s until the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and then the very collapse of the Soviet Union itself soon after." "Watkins, a prizewinning amateur filmmaker, had the idea for a nuclear-war film as early as 1961." "He was head-hunted in 1963 by Huw Wheldon, the talented and flamboyant Head of Documentaries at the BBC." "Watkins amazed his future boss by showing him a long list of challenging films that he felt passionate about making." "At the very top of it was a programme about a nuclear attack on the UK." "Wheldon saw the danger in making what appeared to be a highly controversial programme and steered Watkins towards making Culloden, a programme no less anti-war but more safely distanced by the passage of centuries." "Watkins felt there was a conspiracy of silence about nuclear warfare." "Some BBC films were made but they tended to fall into a safe area where the pros and cons of nuclear weapons were carefully balanced, so as to cancel out any effective debate." "Watkins' conspiracy theory was not wrong." "Recent declassified documents show that Churchill himself intervened when the BBC proposed to make a film in 1954 which suggested that there was no effective protection against the destructive powers of the recently developed hydrogen bomb." "The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, of course, atomic bombs." "The new hydrogen bombs were more powerful and spread radiation over a much wider area." "A secret agreement was reached between the BBC and the Government, whereby information about the subject should be exchanged informally to ensure that any programme about nuclear warfare did not convey a defeatist attitude or question the nuclear deterrent." "Watkins, of course, like the public, was completely unaware of these high-level decisions." "After the huge critical and public success of Culloden, he was in a position to campaign more strongly for the making of his nuclear-attack film, provisionally called After The Bomb." "Wheldon, still erring on the side of caution, tried to stall Watkins." "But Watkins was so adamant that he threatened to resign if he could not make the film at the BBC." "Wheldon didn't want to lose Watkins, a talent he readily acknowledged." "At the same time, he was so concerned about the project that he approached Hugh Carleton Greene, Director General of the BBC, and Lord Normanbrook, Chairman of the Board of Governors, for advice." "They felt the film would greatly displease Her Majesty's Government and began taking soundings from the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, the GPO and various other Government departments." "Lord Normanbrook, who, in his previous role as Cabinet Secretary, had headed a secret committee in 1954 on nuclear policy and civil defence, was, needless to say, particularly concerned about the film's fierce criticism of civil defence." "Meanwhile, Wheldon allowed Watkins to proceed with his film but only on a very unusual approval-by-progress stage." "Watkins began the research in autumn 1964 and completed the script in March 1965." "Greene, Wheldon and Normanbrook saw the pre-filming script and nervously allowed the project to go ahead to the next stage." "Watkins started filming The War Game, as it was now called, in April 1965." "By the end of June 1965, the first cut of the film was complete." "Valerie Booth, production secretary on both Culloden and The War Game, saw an early cut and said it was so powerful that it moved her to tears." "Wheldon, however, constantly in touch with Greene and Normanbrook, suggested changes to make the film more acceptable to his bosses, and, ultimately, their boss:" "The Home Office." "Watkins, still trusting the judgment of a man he respected, listened to Wheldon and made cuts to the early versions of the film." "But Wheldon was still uneasy, especially about the scenes showing a public execution and mercy killings." "It was now time for Watkins to draw the line." "He refused to cut these scenes from his film." "On the 2nd of September, Normanbrook and Greene saw the film." "They both agreed that it was an impressive documentary but decided that the responsibility for its showing was too great for the BBC to bear alone." "Watkins, furious that the BBC were involving the Government in this decision, threatened to resign, an action which he carried out later that month." "Meanwhile, Greene and especially Normanbrook carried on their secret talks with the main Government departments." "A clandestine screening at BBC Television Centre on the 24th of September was arranged." "The Whitehall officials who saw the film included Sir Charles Cunningham, the permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office;" "Sir Burke Trend, Cabinet Secretary, and thus the most powerful civil servant in the land, and other influential officials from the Ministry of Defence, Chiefs of Staff and the Post Office." "Their conclusion was that further reflection and discussion was needed, especially with high-ranking ministers." "The debate about whether to transmit The War Game was going to go all the way to Number Ten Downing Street itself." "Given the film's subject matter and meticulously researched investigation into the practicalities of surviving a nuclear attack and the West's obsession with a deterrent as its Cold War policy, the future of the film was very bleak once this decision had been taken." "Even Mary Whitehouse, the co-founder of the Clean Up Television Campaign, got in on the act." "Alerted by press reports, she wrote to Prime Minister Harold Wilson and other political leaders on the 8th of September 1965." "The War Game, she felt, was too serious a subject for entertainment, and any decision to show it should be taken by the Home Office and not the BBC." "She added that its showing would have a terrible effect on public morale and serious effect upon the image of the British public if the film was ever shown abroad." "Whitehouse, privately mocked by many politicians and some of the BBC hierarchy, was nevertheless seen as a representative of Middle England and a voice that had to be responded to." "The shock wave caused by The War Game rocked Whitehall and the BBC to such an extent that there was a deliberate, secret movement to suppress it." "Whether the film was officially banned by the Government may always remain open to speculation since important files and other documents relating to the period seem to have been destroyed." "But Tony Benn, who was Postmaster General at the time, told me he was ordered to communicate a ban on the film to the BBC by Frank Soskice, the Home Secretary of the day:" "The very department responsible for broadcasting, as well as civil defence, in the UK." "The official ban was probably communicated after the 12th of October 1965, when Wilson met the Lord President and the Secretary of the Cabinet to discuss what Whitehall called 'a film with serious political implications'." "A note at the bottom of a Home Office memo, dated the 24th of November, reads 'The film will not now be shown.'" "A letter from Lord Normanbrook to Sir Burke Trend, the Cabinet Secretary, dated the same day, communicates the message that the BBC have decided not to broadcast The War Game." "Peter Watkins, still a young man in the middle of these political games, although by no means as naïve as the BBC tried to make out, was no match for the ferocity of the British Establishment once it had decided to close its ranks." "Watkins had been given assurance after assurance from the Controller of Television, Huw Wheldon, a man whom he respected as a champion of innovative film making, that any decision not to transmit The War Game would be taken by the BBC" "without any Government involvement." "Once Watkins found out just to what extent the film had been the subject of such intense Government debate, he wrote to Wheldon and Dick Cawston, who took over from Wheldon as the Head of Documentaries." "'You have finally betrayed me', Watkins wrote." "'God help anyone who tries to make a strong film within the BBC and who gets led up the garden path in the way I have.'" "But the BBC clung to the line that the matter had been one for itself and continued to fiercely defend its independence from Government control." "However, it is clear from the conditions of its licence and charter that the Government has the last say on all programmes to be transmitted and that Normanbrook, the Chair of Governors, and Greene, its supposedly liberal Director General," "knew from as early as January 1965 that the project and its director was a subject of grave concern in the Home Office and Ministry of Defence." "Greene was very conscious that the Labour government in power only held a majority of two in the House of Commons and that a general election could be called at any time." "In his eyes, The War Game was a programme that could influence the outcome of a general election." "It is not highly speculative to suggest that November 1965 seems to have been the month when The War Game was officially suppressed by Harold Wilson's Labour government." "Wilson was acutely aware of the political embarrassment the banning of the film could cause." "In a memo dated 12th of October 1965 from his private secretary to the Cabinet Secretary, the case is made for The War Game either being screened as part of a heavily stage-managed so-called debate on nuclear weapons or being left to an infight" "between the BBC, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office." "But whether there was an official ban is to some extent academic." "Had the BBC wished to broadcast the film, it is quite clear that the Government would most certainly have banned it." "So committed was the West to the nuclear deterrent and policy of Mutually Assured Destruction, that the kind of nuclear nightmare depicted with such chilling logic and technical skill in The War Game was an unacceptable truth, which challenged too strongly the central philosophy of the Cold War." "The War Game had limited showings at the National Film Theatre in February 1966, but only to specially invited audiences of politicians, defence correspondents, civil servants, the military and some media personnel." "These token screenings, partly to appease the swelling public demand to see the film screened but mainly to convince the audience that the BBC was right all along to suppress The War Game, backfired on the Corporation." "The BBC's press office stated that 80 per cent of the press reviews were in favour of the decision not to transmit the film." "However, in terms of the quality of the writing in support of the film, the pro War Game camp stole the show." "Kenneth Tynan, the famous arts correspondent for the Observer, led the way by writing 'lt may be the most important film ever made.'" "'We are always told that works of art cannot change the course of history.'" "'Given enough dissemination," "I believe this one can.'" "In a campaign led by Watkins himself, there was a terrific struggle to get the film a theatrical release." "The War Game was classified as an X certificate for cinema release in March 1966." "It represented the UK in the 1966 Venice Film Festival and won an award, much to the embarrassment of the Foreign Office, which feebly tried to suppress its entry as not wholly representative of the UK." "More embarrassingly for the BBC, which at one point had tried to account for its non-transmission on the grounds of artistic failure, it won the Oscar for the best documentary feature at the 1967 Academy Awards." "The War Game was banned from television screens around the world until the BBC screened it in 1985," "20 years after the Corporation's official view that it was too horrific for the medium of broadcasting." "Watkins' film, chillingly accurate as an exposé of the official delusion that it was possible to survive a nuclear war and technically brilliant in its persuasive ability to show the public the full horrors of such a conflict," "went on to make television history." "It helped galvanise the peace movement by providing CND and other organisations with a powerful anti-nuclear-war film to show in cinemas and public halls throughout the country." "Brian Epstein, The Beatles' manager, saw The War Game at a cinema showing in London and wrote to Watkins, saying that he was so impressed that he wanted to help finance the film's independent distribution," "adding that this was not for any personal financial gain on his part." "The film also influenced John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who, in 1968, received a copy of Watkins' first media statement, circulated to high-profile people who might be able to use their public status to campaign for peace." "Lennon is on record as saying 'lt was like getting our call-up papers.'" "Watkins had raised the question" "'What are you doing to promote world peace?" "'" "Lennon and Ono concluded that they were not doing a great deal." "Then came the bed-ins, the bag-ins and protest songs like Give Peace A Chance." "After The War Game, Peter Watkins travelled the globe, making films in Scandinavia, the States and France." "His investigation of the nuclear arms race culminated in a remarkable 14 ½-hour epic, The Journey, a huge project sponsored by peace movements around the world but, like many of Watkins' films, marginalised," "especially by television, as being too long or too experimental in form for the audience." "Watkins has been in the perfect position to view the emergence of what he terms the MONOFORM, a universal mind-set that self-censors itself and limits film and television to a narrow range of forms." "Recently he wrote to me 'The War Game and Culloden are signposts to a direction that TV could have taken but refused.'" "'TV could have been a plurality of forms and processes.'" "With Dr John Cook, I'm writing a book on Peter Watkins." "Watkins granted us many hours of interviews but, for me, one moment in our discussions will always stand out." "It was a sunny July evening, fresh and invigorating after a humid daytime thunderstorm." "Watkins suddenly turned to John and I and said" "'I will never understand the urge people have to destroy.'" "It was, I think, a key moment in our understanding of Peter Watkins." "Lieb aus deinem göttlichen Mund" "Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'" "The last day of my life." "Diary, 24th of September, 1916." "Near Combles." "I had spent the night in a ruined cellar with its walls dripping moisture, so now it was good to feel the sun's warmth striking through the folds of my damp tunic." "And the morning was perfect." "There was nothing to be heard save the occasional murmur of soldiers' voices and the crunch of boots on the soil." "And in the gentle lulling warmth the war seemed very remote, for here was peace." "One time I remember I slowly became aware of the sound of men digging on the other side of the bank near where I stood." "(Chuckles) I don't know what they were digging for exactly but I do remember they sounded very cheerful about it." "(Laughs) Especially when somebody nearby started a phonograph going." "Here's to the deep brown beer That makes me feel so queer" "Here's to the deep brown beer of London town" "Rolling home, rolling home" "Rolling home, rolling home" "By the light of the silvery moon" "Oh-oh-oh, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha" "Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee" "Here's to the deep brown beer of London town" "Take me back to dear old Blighty" "It was very comforting to hear those cheerful noises because... well, it was such a warm and peaceful morning and it helped me forget about the war and perhaps not only me, for all around me in this desolate back area soldiers were relaxing:" "Soldiers quiet and easy in the sun, a whole army at rest, like an unwound clock spring;" "men released from a hell in a merciful peace that is suddenly shattered." "(Rumbling)" "Shattered by the soft but deadly voices of guns, an insistent clamouring from a heavy barrage at the front, two miles away." "Start to feel the first pangs of fear and the gentle breath of the morning turns sour." "But does any of this affect the other members of my section?" "(Chuckles) Seems not." "Pretlove at the end is loudly concluding some coarse joke and the other men appear to be quite unconcerned and relaxed." "I can't tell... whether those men at the end are as scared as I am." "I don't know." "They may be able to cover up well, for a couple of French soldiers from the front are passing them and the only reaction seems to be that Pretlove has some rude remark." "But, to me, the sight of those dusty soldiers clumping away brings the physical feel of war close for the first time." "Then suddenly I hear the rattle of rifle bolts and the clink of helmets and then the crunch of marching feet, as men all around me march off to the front." "Crunch, crunch, crunch!" "Each rhythmic crunch of the boots draws the war closer, and closer." "Oh, God, soon it'll be my turn and my feet, too - crunch, crunch, dragging me forward towards those guns:" "Those bloody, blasted guns!" "Suppose I must be making a melodrama out of all this but there's something so unnatural, so horrible about the sight of those soldiers, plodding like soulless automatons through a desolate land." "It's all rather unnerved me." "Anyway, I must try and pull myself together like those other men, who seem to be quietly relaxing in the sun." "There's Pretlove there, who seems to spend almost every waking minute relishing one of the highly immoral and vulgar leaves he's spent." "And of course solid, dour old Bill Richards, who seems to spend most of his time listening to Pretlove." "It never was worthwhile" "Then of course there's dear old Tom Mason, who has been in the war since early 1915." "(Laughs) He can be a little old-fashioned at times, particularly where young Ginger Morris is concerned, who has without doubt the most active bowel system in the British Army." "He's always emerging from behind some bush or other." "(Laughs) And as he usually has some cheeky answer ready, poor old Tom ends up by being furious. (Laughs)" "But..." "Ted Crompton I've never really liked, probably because I feel he rather enjoys his war." " (Rumbling)" " As for young Lieutenant Ferris," "I..." "I always think how awful it must be for him on offences." "He's always got to appear calm and in complete control of his nerves, no matter what he really feels." "It's probably a lot easier for the experienced Sergeant Harman." "He's been in the front many times before." "(Rumbling)" "God, those guns again." "They seem to be nearer now, louder and... more insistent." "They seem to have destroyed all of the peace and beauty of this morning." "The air is foul, the trees seem to become twisted and warped, the branches jab at me, sharp-pointed and hard like steel, like the battle." "Oh, God, the battle." "I'm scared." "So bloody scared." "You see, I know what's going to happen." "I can see it all in my mind." "I can see it, I..." "I can see the details of a battle in my mind, I can..." "I can hear the noise." "I can see the blurred confusion, men running, men left to die." "I..." "Oh, God, it's too awful, too bloody awful, and I'm so scared." "For this... this is what I'm..." "going to go through." "(Roar of battle)" "(Bullets whizz)" "La Marseillaise" "Watch them cheering." "They've gained an area of about 200 square yards of mud, just heaving with stinking mud." "And in a short while the Boche will win it back again." "Meanwhile, let them cheer at the wonderful achievement." "And that?" "That is how I shall probably die, left like some torn, screwed-up rag on the battlefield." "When you know this is going to happen to you, your body suddenly becomes something terribly precious to you." "Your flesh, soft and warm, is yours:" "Your personal belonging, not to be treated like some discarded offal." "You find yourself thinking about this, realising what a wonderful thing your body is and what an awful and wrong thing it is to maltreat it." "(lnhales) But all that is to come." "At the moment it's..." "just the watching and the waiting." "Watching the lieutenant and... waiting for someone, probably a brigade runner, to bring him our movement orders:" "Orders that'll take us to the front, to those guns." "Oh, come on, why the hell doesn't something happen?" "Time is just grinding by and nothing is happening." "Perhaps... perhaps a runner won't appear. (Laughs weakly) Perha..." "Oh." "Oh, God." "(Shell shrieks)" "I..." "I..." "I should have known." "Should have known there'd be no escape." "The others must know it, too." "I wonder what they're thinking about." "What's going on behind that cold front of Crompton's?" "Crompton, who has vowed to run three Germans through with his bayonet before the battle's over." "Is he really as hard and as cold as he would have us believe or is this toughness merely a front to cover his real feelings?" "Only he knows." "I don't envy poor old Tom, he's been to the front so many times he really knows what he's in for." "Must be awful for him." "Must be awful for all of them." "Just managing to control their feelings on the outside, they... they wait and watch in silence, impassive, expressionless, but what on the inside?" "Fear?" "Resentment?" "Bewilderment?" "Or just loneliness?" "(Military tune)" "If that officer had only the power to write down what his men felt and could then make the people who start these wars read about it, then maybe they'd... maybe th..." "Oh, well." "Anyway, I see now that we're about to start our little war." "So let's pull up our equipment, pull it on and get ready to play at being tin soldiers and... go and fight for a few yards of earth." "So now I'm ready." "With my rifle and bayonet and steel helmet and ammunition," "I suppose I must be everything those recruiting posters say I should be." "They don't tell you you can get so scared, so numb, that... even the rough canvas webbing, you... can't feel it." "You just don't know it's there." "Your whole body is a vacuum without feeling, except for a cold, clammy palm." "To be a proper soldier you've got to wipe your hands with furtive moves so that nobody can see." "There's... there's an ache in your throat... and your head hurts and your... and your mind flits from thing to thing." "You can't think properly." "Your hands remotely do odd little things without you knowing." "Oh, God, my head hurts." "Why can't someone explain to me just why I've got to die?" "Soon... soon there'll be nothing." "Just a void." "Nothing." "And Tom." "Tom, please help me." "Gi... give me some of your strength, so that I won't be scared, as you're not scared." "Tom... please... help me." "He didn't... say a thing, didn't try to help me." "I..." "I just don't know why." "Or... was he scared, too?" "...in your old kitbag..." "I shall never know." "I shall never know." "While there's a lucifer..." "So then it was time for us to leave." "Well, I suppose, in years to come, people will say about us" ""They went with songs to the battle."" ""They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow."" "God, if only they knew." "As we marched along the ridge, I saw below us a German prisoner." "He was the first German soldier I'd ever seen." "As I looked at him I saw the complete ridiculousness of the whole thing." "He was eating a bowl of soup or something and he looked so ordinary, so harmless, he... he might have been Pretlove or Morris sitting there." "Just wearing a different uniform." "This man was meant to be our enemy, a soldier of the hated imperial German Empire, one of the men we'd been trained to kill." "And he looked... so harmless." "But the most terrible thing about war is... not just the fact that we have to kill men so much like ourselves but that we have to hate them, and keep on hating them." "And now, meanwhile, all that is left to us, to our section, is to go forward and fight and kill men like him, like ourselves." "Seems so bloody pointless." "We go forward to those guns and God only knows what'll happen to us." "God only knows." "(Sighs)" "We're told what a tremendous thing it is to die for one's country." "Well, tell it to those two."