37 Days

I admit some of the Geman characters were a bit one dimensional but I wouldn't be so hard on this series as others. I really enjoyed it and missed it when it ended. It was educational, informative and entertaining. I am a fan of history so I might be a bit biased I admit but it was right up my street.

It isn't meant to be a high-budget American blockbuster, but a serious look at a side of the First World War that usually gets little coverage. OK the odd bit of dialogue was less than authentic - but a darn sight more authentic than all the massive bloopers in Downton Abbey! We all know about the battles and the casualties, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the Treaty of Versailles, but it is politicians who make wars. Politicians and human frailties. This series focuses on the politicians involved and shows how we come to war by degree and mis-interpretation and not by some big event.

As stated, the performances by the actors playing the English characters were great - understated and probably accurate.

I learnt a lot. Perhaps an abridged version would be useful in schools so those studying GCSE History can see that there was more to it than 'a bloke getting shot in the Balkans'.

This series shows how WW1 started. Nobody actually wanted war, but everybody thought someone else will stop it. When it started, there was no way back.

37 Days is an informative, well-paced, even thrilling piece of historical drama with some superb performances from the best of the British. Its approach to the causes of the First World War is both entertaining and educational. However, there are some problems which prevent this mini-series from becoming a true classic.

The greatest problem is that almost all character who are not British are portrayed in a manner most cartoonish; from the German Kaiser to Austrian and French ambassadors all non-British characters are ridiculously over-the-top caricatures, more ludicrous than the characters in Oh! What a Lovely War. And Lovely War is a musical parody.

I can't but wonder why a production which pays so much attention to detail and is slavishly faithful to historical facts makes its characters look one-dimensional caricatures? Especially when all the British characters are portrayed as completely normal and there is true emotion and humanity in the scenes taking place in London. Is portraying the Continental characters as buffoons some kind of a statement or a lousy attempt at comedy by the British production team? In this respect 37 Days brings to mind the Nazi version of Titanic in 1943 where all the English characters are baddies and the German one saves the day. (Another point which bothers me is the portrayal of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. In this he is shown as an aggressive and stern military man rather than the sensitive and simple family man portrayed in every single film and history book concerning this topic. Could it be that the production team has confused Nicholas II with his father Alexander III because the character in 37 Days truly looks and acts like Alexander?)

Nevertheless, 37 Days is a fresh take on the First World War and includes some wonderful performances. Absolutely phenomenal is Ian McDiarmid as Sir Edward Grey who truly brings realism and humanity to the production which is in places in a danger of becoming a parody because of its cartoonish cavalcade of Continental caricatures or a boring history lesson since all the scenes take place in cabinet meeting rooms. Other great performances are delivered by Bill Paterson, Sinéad Cusack, Nicholas Farrell and Tim Pigott-Smith, to name a few.

Intriguing and educational.

A dramatisation of the events that lead to World War 1, and, in particular, Britain's participation in the war. From the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 until Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 - 37 days - we see the diplomatic negotiations and behind-the-scenes machinations from many sides.

A well made telling of the diplomacy (and, ultimately, failure thereof) in the lead-up to World War 1. Had the potential to be quite dry, but there is always a fair amount of tension and intrigue present, even though you know how it is all going to end.

Quite educational too: there's plenty of movies about the fighting in wars, but not much about the diplomatic side. This makes 37 Days a bit of a rarity.

Also quite chilling, as you see how things escalate, and realise how the war could have been averted. You see how personalities and sometimes seemingly small events or discussions shape the outcome. Quite eye-opening.

The main reason behind this mini-series was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of WW1, so this programme certainly had an educational purpose behind it. Unfortunately, the only saving grace of this rather clumsy attempt to tell the story was the brilliant performance of Ian McDiarmid, who despite being far too old to play Sir Edward Grey, was astonishingly convincing in the role. As has been mentioned by other reviewers, the continental characters were very poorly played, with some over the top hysterics from Kaiser Wilhelm and Von Moltke in particular -shouting and gesticulations taking the place of cogent discussion. The actors playing the Kaiser and the Tsar, in particular, looked nothing like the genuine individuals, and tried to make up for it with poor acting. There was also very little from the Austro-Hungarians, other than their ambassador coming up with poor excuses whilst being reprimanded like a naughty schoolboy by Sir Edward. The other continental characters conformed very much to national stereotypes. Finally, three hours did seem rather too much to explain the events - a single, edited two hour programme would have been much better. The first two episodes contained some periods of rather unnecessary tedium, only redeemed by the third one.