A beloved British hero, an evil German, a super-weapon, and... a time-travelling 1980s New York executive? How did everyone get it so wrong when it came to putting WW1 flying ace Biggles on the big screen? It was supposed to be a rival to Raiders of the Lost Ark, then it was going to be the new Back to the Future. In the end it was a war crime. And that's before we get to the music.

Rob and Duncan are joined by Biggles fanboy Mark Wallace to discuss what might have been, why Biggles stories are far tougher than many people understand, and why a fictional pilot played a real role in the Battle of Britain.

Next week: Gallipoli.

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Is this the war movie that explains all war movies? Rob and Duncan watch the first version of All Quiet On The Western Front, made barely a decade after the First World War ended. Somehow, it turns out to be a chance to talk about Starship Troopers again.

[Apologies for a fat-finger error that led Rob to delete the first five minutes of this episode when we first uploaded it. All fixed now, we hope, and Duncan is working on a suitable punishment.]

Next week, we continue Great War Month with Biggles.

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Live from the Imperial War Museum's Podcast Festival, we kick off Great War Month by watching Sam Mendes's men-with-a-mission trench-running bonanza, 1917, with John Crace of the Guardian.

Is this the operation that changed the course of the Great War? Should they have searched that farmhouse? Might there, in fact, be a better way to get the message through? All this and more.

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Suggestions? Comments? Drop us a line at warmovietheatre@gmail.com.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.