90 minute feature documentary. Co-Produced with UKTV Yesterday channel & RMC Découverte French TV channel.
War Above the Trenches is the story of the Royal Flying Corps bitter struggle for air superiority over the Western Front during WW1. It explains how the French and British shared tactics to gain air power.
Adapted from the book Bloody April by historian Peter Hart, we explore the brave new world of dogfights, aerial reconnaissance and bombing missions through the eyes of the men in the air and those fighting in the trenches below.
As a drama and documentary hybrid, we weave through the episodes with our presenter, into scripted film scenes that captivate the horrors of the bloody war and excite with its fortitude in forging the very concept of ‘air power’. The recorded voices of RFC veterans from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as readings from their diaries, letters and memoirs will act as narration as we transport the audience into the feature film style reconstructions.
Credits
Producer / Director
Stephen Saunders
Writer
Luke Freeman & Ron Saunders
Executive Producer
Peter Rudge, Andrew White, Carl Smeaton, Helen Baker, Andrew Duncan, Kenneth Maule, Robert Mileto
Director of Photography
Garath Whyte
Production Managers
Emily White & Richie Howle
Co-Producers
Red Rock Entertainment Geoffrey Sharpe, Paul Calvert, Richard Harvey, David & June Peggs, Ian Bray, Helen Fage, Kaushalya & Shweta Ahluwalia
Editors
David Arshadi & David Hill
Location Sound
Martin Alimundo, Danial Bond
SFX
Hamish MacLoeod History in the Making
Sound Mixer
Pete Collins
Visual Effects
Philip Wattis, Z Depth
Stills
Dawn Jutton Photography
Multiple buying choices available
The First World War. One of the most brutal conflicts in history. Millions of troops huddle in trenches stretching across Europe.
Twelve years after the Wright Brothers pioneer powered flight, the aeroplane has become a deadly killing machine. This drama documentary traces the pioneering efforts of Britain and France in the early days of aviation, the struggle to master the unfamiliar, untested business of aerial warfare and the bitter fighting as the airmen of both nations challenge German pilots in the skies above the Trenches.
They were the eyes of the big guns of the artillery, summoning a storm of accurate fire crashing down upon the enemy, pulverising men and material in an effort to break the stalemate of a prolonged and brutal conflict.
