37 Daysis a Britishdramaminiseriesthat was first broadcast onBBC Twofrom 6 to 8 March 2014. The three-part miniseries covers the 37 days beforeWorld War I,from theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austriaon 28 June 1914 to the United Kingdom declaring war on Germany on 4 August 1914.[1]
| 37 Days | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Mark Hayhurst |
| Directed by | Justin Hardy |
| Composer | Andrew Simon McAllister |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No.of series | 1 |
| No.of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Producers |
|
| Cinematography | Douglas Hartington |
| Editor | Adam Green |
| Running time | 177 minutes |
| Production company | Hardy Pictures |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | 6 March– 8 March 2014 |
Cast
edit
- Ian McDiarmidasEdward Grey
- Nicholas FarrellasEyre Crowe
- Tim Pigott-SmithasHerbert Henry Asquith
- Sinéad CusackasMargot Asquith
- Bill PatersonasLord Morley
- Kenneth CranhamasJohn Burns
- Ludger PistorasBethmann-Hollweg
- Rainer Sellien asKaiser Wilhelm II
- Bernhard Schütz asHelmuth Moltke
- Mark Lewis JonesasDavid Lloyd George
- Nicholas AsburyasWinston Churchill
- Urs Remond asPrince Lichnowsky
- James McArdleas Alec
- André Kaczmarczykas Jens
- Holger Kunkel asFalkenhayn
- Stephan Szasz asJagow
- Kate Ambler as Muriel
- François-Éric GendronasPaul Cambon
- Niall Cusack asBenckendorff
- George Lenz asMensdorff
- Chris Kelly asGavrilo Princip
- Oliver Ford DaviesasCunliffe
- Patrick Fitzsymons asKing George V
- Ian BeattieasTsar Nicholas II
- Simon Coury asFranz Ferdinand
- Rainer Reiners asVon Below
- Gordon Fulton asSukhomlinov
- Mary Moulds asSophie Chotek
- Christopher Leveaux as Lieutenant Feldmann
Production
editThe series was shot entirely inBelfast,Northern Ireland.[2]It is part of theBBC World War I centenary seasonand was first announced byJanice Hadlow,the controller of BBC Two, on 22 August 2013.[3]The series seeks to quash assumptions about the war's inevitability, such as theSarajevo shootingmaking the war inevitable.[4][5]
Writer and producers Mark Hayhurst and Sue Horth compiled a 175-page book tracing "every conference, every telephone call, private letter and telegram swirling around Europe" before writing the script.[6]
Episode list
edit| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "One Month in Summer" | Justin Hardy | Mark Hayhurst | 6 March 2014 | 2.89 |
| 2 | "One Week in July" | Justin Hardy | Mark Hayhurst | 7 March 2014 | 2.14 |
| 3 | "One Long Weekend" | Justin Hardy | Mark Hayhurst | 8 March 2014 | 1.84 |
Reception
editThe series was positively reviewed by critics.
In a four-star review forThe Times,Andrew Billen called the series "a clear and often brilliant dramatisation" and praised McDiarmid's portrayal of Grey as "surely one of the actor's greatest performances" though he found "the humour becomes slightly broader" in the scenes set in Berlin and Vienna and that the subplot of the two clerks "rather peters out".[8]
In a four of five-star review forThe Telegraph,Christopher Howse found the series "enthralling" but was distracted by the use of theBelfast City Hallas a location forWhitehall.[9]
Andrew AnthonyofThe Guardiancalled the series a "meticulous rendering" and "impressively wordy and careful imagining" free of "romantic digressions or fictional appeals to sentiment", with a "strong performance" by McDiarmid; he also found the drama "rigid and simplistic" with "dubious stereotypes and an excess of rhetorical dialogue".[10]
InThe Independent,Ellen Jones wrote the series' "masterstroke" was "to reframe this history textbook timeline as a subtle character study", praising its "terrifically well written" dialogue.[11]
References
edit- ^"Drama".BBC.16 October 2013.Retrieved22 October2013.
- ^"37 Days on BBC Two".Northern Ireland Screen.3 March 2014. Archived fromthe originalon 10 March 2014.Retrieved10 March2014.
- ^"Janice Hadlow announces raft of new BBC Two and BBC Four commissions".BBC.22 August 2013.Retrieved22 October2013.
- ^Jackson, James (22 August 2013)."BBC serial 37 Days to overturn assumptions about First World War".The Times.Retrieved22 October2013.
- ^Burrell, Ian (13 October 2013)."WW1 beyond the mud and trenches: BBC's plans for the centenary of World War One".The Independent.Archivedfrom the original on 6 May 2022.Retrieved22 October2013.
- ^"37 Days: Changing my perspective of WWI".BBC.7 March 2014.Retrieved14 March2014.
- ^"BARB Top 30s".
- ^Billen, Andrew."TV Review: 37 Days".The Times.Retrieved21 April2017.
- ^Howse, Christopher (6 March 2014)."37 Days, BBC Two, review".Telegraph.co.uk.The Telegraph.Retrieved21 April2017.
- ^Anthony, Andrew (8 March 2014)."37 Days; Line of Duty; Mind the Gap: London vs the Rest – review".The Guardian.Retrieved21 April2017.
- ^Jones, Ellen E. (6 March 2014)."37 Days, TV review: A political thriller that grippingly uncovers the countdown to war".The Independent.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2014.Retrieved21 April2017.
