The Wipers Times - DaaVeeDee

The Wipers Times (DVD) (*)

~~$29.99~~ $23.97

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
150 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Deleted Scenes
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2013 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Andy De Emmony

Written By:
Ian Hislop
Nick Newman

Actors:
Ben Chaplin ..... Roberts
Patrick Fitzsymons ..... Deputy Features Editor
Julian Rhind-Tutt ..... Pearson
Steve Oram ..... Sergeant Harris
Josh O'Connor ..... Dodd
Jarrod Cooke ..... Henderson
Colin Ash ..... Smith
Hugh Skinner ..... Barnes
Ben Daniels ..... Lieutenant Colonel Howfield
Michael Palin ..... General Mitford
Richard Doubleday ..... ADC Bobby
Paul Kennedy ..... Winston Churchill
Emma Little ..... Field Nurse
Emilia Fox ..... Kate Roberts
Faolan Morgan ..... Chaplain

Synopsis:

In the bombed-out ruins of Ypres in 1916, Captain Fred Roberts and Lieutenant Jack Pearson discovered a printing press. They used it to produce The Wipers Times - a humorous, satirical and subversive trench newspaper which proved hugely popular with soldiers - though not entirely with their superior officers. Braving constant bombardment and bitter fighting, The Wipers Times survived the Somme and made it through to the end of the war. Roberts and Pearson were highly decorated - yet were unrecognised in their lifetime. The Wipers Times is a story of the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. The Wipers Times stars Ben Chaplin (London Boulevard, Me and Orson Welles, The New World), Julian Rhind-Tutt (The Hour, Green Wing), Michael Palin (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life Of Brian), Steve Oram (Sightseers, Kill List) and Emilia Fox (Silent Witness, Merlin) and is directed by Andy de Emmony (Love Bite, West Is West, The Bletchley Circle), produced by David Parfitt (My Week with Marilyn, Parades End, Shakespeare In Love) and written by Ian Hislop (A Bunch of Amateurs, My Dads The Prime Minister) and Nick Newman.

Just after the First World War Fred Roberts goes for a job as a newspaper journalist and tells the sub-editor how, in the trenches in 1916, he discovered a printing press in working order. Helped by ex-printer Sergeant Harris and with his friend Jack Pearson as his assistant, he sets up the Wipers Times - the name coming from the soldiers' pronunciation of the town Ypres. Despite disapproval from officious Colonel Howfield but with backing from sympathetic General Mitford they produce twenty-three issues of a satirical magazine - its articles represented on screen in black and white - which boosts morale and even gets mentioned in the Tatler. The press is destroyed by a German shell but another is found and the paper's title changed to fit in with wherever the regiment is deployed. Pearson and Roberts are both awarded gallantry medals but when Roberts is only offered the job of crossword compiler by the sub-editor he moves to Canada as a prospector while Pearson marries and opens a hotel in Argentina. Both survived into the 1960s.

When Captain Fred Roberts discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times - "Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humor, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying both authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved a huge success with the troops on the Western Front. It was, above all, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. In his spare time Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 06 May, 2014.