Well I'm sure somewhere a pedant has sat up during the night composing their complaint letter to the BBC, maybe it was an email, but either way it would be unjust. The programme was good.
As a mid week, mid evening piece on a non specialist channel the knowledgable/anoraks will no doubt be able to find fault. Maybe it was a Mark iv shown whilst describing the actions of a Mark v tank etc, but it was a balanced piece which didn't descend into the traditional warfare of pro vs anti-Haig, nor did it worship the (worthy) efforts of the colonial troops or degrade the (equally worthy) efforts of British troops.
The look of the programme was engaging, computer graphics won't appeal to everyone but personally, being of a certain age, I like that kind of think and the images of the all arms offensive and penatration tactics worked really well. It was also encouraging to see the removal of the frankly painful "improvisation based on real accounts" seen in the previous series, the talking heads this time being serving soldiers.
Slipping my anorak on for a moment, I believe the Cambrai offensive of November 1917 was the first large scale use of pre-registered artillery and the programme did kind of suggest the this occured at Amiens in August 1918 but it may have been the way I was listening or my current obsession with Cambrai that gave me this impression.
Overall a good programme on the First World War and in particular the Western Front and no poetry!
For more detail see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/twentiethcenturybattlefields/
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