The build-up from 1900 to the outbreak of war in 1914 and the hopeful first months to Christmas. We see early action and images, and rare archive film of Belgian refugees in Newcastle-under-Lyme, November 1914, after the fall of Belgium. We see how people coped on the Home Front, and see film of women workers in factories and on the land. We commemorate the 1914 Christmas Truce - when the common soldiers on both sides stopped the war for two days - in a special re-enactment. We conclude this sequence in winter, early 1915 - when jingoistic optimism has now been replaced with resignation to the stalled entrenchment of armies which was to typify the rest of the war. (90 minutes)

Special Features

World War 1 Project - Hartshill Community in Stoke-on-Trent and the personal stories of local men.

Gertie Gitana from Stoke – who became the Forces’ Sweetheart.