Tommies (10th April 1917 & 17th April 1917)

A major BBC Radio 4 drama series following the lives of those on and behind the battlefront of World War I.

We follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army as they experience life - and death - on the front line. Meanwhile, Dr Celestine de Tullio battles to save soldiers suffering from gas gangrene and trench fever - and experiences the fighting firsthand when she enlists in the Serbian Army and commands a dangerous offensive.

They are all cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.

Meticulously based on actual historical records, unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, telling untold stories about the war in Gaza, Gallipoli, Serbia, Mesopotamia, Russia, Egypt, Macedonia, Italy, Turkmenistan and Tanzania, as well as on the Western Front. It paints a vivid portrait of daily life for soldiers and their families during 1914-1918 and sheds new light on the reality of the Great War.

Producers of the radio plays are David Hunter, Jonquil Panting and Jonathan Ruffle. Authors of the play scripts include Jonathan Ruffle, Michael Chaplin, Ahmad Shah, Nick Warburton and Nandita Ghose.

Cast and characters
Lee Ross – Sergeant Mickey Bliss, of the Signals Section, Lahore Division, British Indian Army
Danny Rahim – Ahmadullah Khan, a Havildar in the Signals Section, Lahore Division, British Indian Army.
Rudi Dharmalingam – Pavan Jodha, a Jemadar in the Signals Section, Lahore Division, British Indian Army.
Pippa Nixon – Celestine de Tullio, a doctor.
Patrick Kennedy – Robert de Tullio, banker and husband of Celestine.
Alex Wyndham – Lieutenant Maberley Dunster, of B Squadron, 15th King’s Hussars, British Army.
Tony Pitts – Sergeant Walter Oddy, of the Signals Section, 2nd Division, British Expeditionary Force.
Elaine Claxton – Sister Marjorie Blaikeley, based in a Boulogne military hospital.
Clive Hayward – Major Hector Monkhouse, of the 15th Bengal Lancers, British Indian Army.
Sam Valentine – Harry de Tullio, young Pilot with the British army.

25th November 1916 00:00
After the horrors of the Battle of the Somme Captain Mickey Bliss is on leave in Paris where he is drawn into the shady world of intelligence and politics in this story by Nick Warburton.

With over a million casualties so far, a potential peace offer from Berlin generates a flurry of activity and manoeuvring amongst those in power.

10th April 1917 00:00
In the tunnels underneath Vimy Ridge, the Canadian Corps are re-writing the rules of war, in this story by Avin Shah.

Mickey Bliss has taken a shine to the can-do Canadians. Particularly since yesterday, when they made a momentous advance here on the Western Front, together with British forces. But when Mickey meets a young Canadian journalist, here to write up the story for his home paper - can they agree on what really happened?

17th April 1917 43:50
Who appears at your bedside, when you're a serviceman who's expected to die?

Who appears in your head?

After two and a half years at war, the answers for Mickey Bliss hold plenty of surprises. And in this story by Nick Warburton, set in the officers-only Duchess of Westminster's No. 1 British Red Cross Society Hospital in Le Touquet, those surprises include a very unorthodox medical procedure.

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