21st January 2012

As a tie-in to the BBC/Working Title adaptation of ‘Birdsong’ that airs tomorrow night at 9.00pm on BBC1 there has been much recent interest shown by journalists looking for real stories of tunnelling in the Great War.  At the invitation of Peter Barton, the Birdsong actors Eddie Redmayne and Joseph Mawle visited La Boisselle in June 2011, going underground to explore some of the Glory Hole tunnel system. Details of this can be found on the La Boisselle Study Group website here:

http://www.laboisselleproject.com/2012/01/20/birdsong-by-sebastian-faulks-%E2%80%93-a-two-part-adaptation-by-working-title-television-for-the-bbc-broadcast-sunday-22-january-and-sunday-29-january-2012/

Today saw the Daily Mirror publish an article entitled ‘The real hero tunnellers of World War One who inspired BBC’s Birdsong’. It focusses primarily on William Hackett’s story and also covers some events at La Boisselle. Please click on the Newspaper name below to read the story.