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Feb 16, 2017CaptainHecto rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Any dramatization of past events must take some liberties with the historical record,, so the question is how far those liberties should go. The answer given here is way too far. The first two episodes are filled with inaccurate portrayals of the events of the July crisis, the most notable being the wholly false depiction of how the German 'blank cheque' to Austria was given. We have Sir Edward Grey, the most courteous of men, calling the Austrian ambassador a fool to his face; Bethmann Hollweg making his famous 'scrap of paper' remark at the wrong time, the scenes in the 'Foreign Office' (which is right in Whitehall) shot at some country house, the Cabinet meetings at Number 10 shot in some public building, and so on. Tim Pigott-Smith manages to look and talk like Asquith, and it was refreshing to see Eyre Crowe used as Grey's sounding board, but that's as far as it goes. Episode three is the least defective, but as a whole the series is an inexplicable disappointment. The story is dramatic enough on its own: it is not improved by being presented in a fast and loose way. Compare this to the old 'Fall of Eagles' TV series, which does a far better job dramatizing the same subject. Bottom line; the less one knows about the actual events of the July crisis of 1914, the better this production will likely seem.