Scoping WW1 Features

A day of sleuthing and scoping to find untold stories to illustrate domestic experiences of World War 1.  The "No Manifestation of Feeling" notice is a stark reminder of the impersonal treatment of conscientious objectors in the Great War.

SYNOPSIS: A SERIES THAT BRINGS TO LIFE THE HIDDEN STORIES OF WORLD WAR ONE BY VISITING THE REAL PEOPLE, BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, AND NEIGHBOURHOODS OF YORK CITIZENS 

FORMAT: ILLUSTRATED DOCUMENTARY FEATURES USING READINGS FROM LETTERS, DIARIES, NEWSPAPERS, WAR RECORDS, HOSPITAL AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE FACILITY RECORDS, ORAL HISTORY FRAGMENTS

STRUCTURE: 5 x 6 MINUTE FEATURES TO PLAY OUT FOR FIVE DAYS OF THE WEEK USING A MEMBER OF THE BBC RADIO YORK STAFF AS PRESENTER/NARRATOR 

STORIES: CONTRASTING FEATURES OVER THE WEEK WILL TELL DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF HOW THE WAR WAS EXPERIENCED IN  YORK, PAYING ATTENTION TO THE OFTEN NOW FORGOTTEN STORIES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WORK AND PLAY, IMPRISONMENT AND CASUALTIES:

for example, "To Fight Or Not To Fight" 

In 1916 York was a centre for conscientious objector activists, Quakers at Bootham School and the Rowntree factories.  Aflred Martlew was put on a trial in the Guildhall and subsequently pressganged to the front line in France where he was tied to a barbed wire fence, but still refused to fight.  This story is told through Hansard, Newspaper Accounts, and Letters to the MP Arnold Rowntree.  The drama pivots on the relationship between Alfred and his fiancée,  Annie, and a body found drowned in the Ouse:

listen to ‘To Fight Or Not To Fight’ on Audioboo
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To Fight Or Not To FightPoppy

Short drama following the Tribunal of a Conscientious Objector during the First World War. Commissioned as a heritage soundscape by DAFX. This installation tells a story inspired by events that took place in around the Council Chamber of York's Guildhall in 1916. It seeks not to re-enact the words, but instead to take a wider range of voices, using words from the archive to weave together a sound scape of the opinions of citizens about the sanctity of life and death. 
The words are found from Hansard, Friends Records, Yorkshire Press, because the original records of the tribunals were destroyed by the military in 1921. Although you don't get the impact when you hear it as a mixed soundscape rather than the voices dispersed from within York's Guildhall Chamber, please do have a listen.
Imagine sitting in a wooden courtroom where we re-enacted the drama with the only lighting being from the desk lamps, and the voices of the Judge infront of you, the voices of the plaintiff and witnesses adjacent to you from the well of the Chamber, and the voices from the Public Gallery behind you.
Producer Credits: Jon Calver & Helen Weinstein. Researcher Intern Credits: Sam Johnson, Joe Muller, Catherine Oakley. Voices: Ewan Bailey, Sheila Bradburn, Jon Calver, Alana Gibb, Adam Gutteridge, Ian Hardwick, Sam Johnson, Catherine Oakley, John Oxley, Henrietta Titcombe, Philip Titcombe.
http://historyworks.tv/
WW1 Features

 

 

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