Great War Portraits

It’s been a few years since I first read the novel Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. So I was looking forward to the BBCs adaptation hoping it would do it justice, well it did more than that. Mr Faulks must be a very pleased man.
 
So often we are let down with clichés and stereotypes littering Great War dramas. Not so here, I can compare this to Journey’s End, a classic WW1 play by R C Sherriff, for it’s reality, although completely different in its approach but believable none the less.
 
Some maybe nick picky regarding military equipment and procedures, I do not have the expertise to be so, thankfully it was the superb characters and acting that shone and dominated throughout.
 
The sexual chemistry and expectation between the leading characters Isabelle Azaire and Stephen Wraysford was, well amazing. Their legs touching in the punt, fleeting eye contact and facial acting that was just superb. Without hardly a word spoken, one knew the question and the answer. In fact the dialogue throughout was kept at a minimum allowing the mood to build, it was the unsaid that created the tension.
 
This was beautifully illustrated by the bemused and bewildered elderly chamber maid as she helped Isabelle quickly pack her personal belongings. Monsieur Azaire bursts in, too late to catch his wife departing. He departs calling his wife ‘bitch’. The chamber maid’s facial expression said it all, brilliant.
 
This pre war part of the drama was the crucial element for me, if this worked the rest would follow, this is what made the book unique. The acting and direction was of the highest order, with great empathy for the period and the novel. 
 
Part two cannot come quickly enough!
 
  
Image ©BBC