Please note the following Program changes:
On Friday, December 25 The BBC Newshour Extra will be replaced with a broadcast of “The Ghostly Voices of World War One”
Program title: The Ghostly Voice of World War One
First aired: Friday 25 December 2015
Program duration: 49 mins 30 secs (23 mins & 26 mins 30 secs) or 59 mins including News bulletins, billboards & promos
Broadcast window: 25 December 2015 – 8 January 2016
BBC Broadcasting times: APM Fri 02:06 rpt 18:06, 23:06; Sat 06:06 ET
Please note that this Program is a repeat.
Program description:
An emotional journey, resurrecting the voices of ordinary soldiers, from the far flung corners of the British Empire, who fought in World War One.
Hidden away in the backrooms at Humbolt University and the Ethnological Museum in Berlin are some of the most remarkable sound recordings ever made. They date back to the First World War – a unique archive capturing the voices of some of the ordinary men who fought in what was known as ‘the war to end all wars’.
They were recorded by German academics who realised they didn’t have to go abroad to do their research into some of the world’s many different languages. Instead, they were able to focus on captured soldiers from the furthest reaches of the British Empire who were being held at prisoner of war camps all over Germany. Among them were a group of Hindus, Sikhs and Indian soldiers imprisoned at camps on the outskirts of Berlin who performed poems, songs and stories which were recorded using Thomas Eddison’s latest invention.
How these men lived out the rest of their lives has, up until now, been cloaked in obscurity. What happened to them and how did they die? Armed with the recordings, Priyath Liyanage goes on a quest, taking him from Germany across the world to some of the villages in Northern India where these men lived.
It proves to be an emotional journey, resurrecting memories which had long been forgotten. The Germans noted down the soldiers’ names as well details about their various backgrounds, but the world has changed over the last one hundred years. Some struggle to recall the old man who used to shuffle around their village, others remember. And when the recordings are played they have an almost magical effect. These old soldiers may be gone but their voices live on.