Wherever you go in the world you will find memorials to those that fell in the two World Wars.
Below many of these plaques and memorials you will find the words ‘lest we forget’ etched in. These words serve to remind all of us of those who fought and died in the fields of Europe and beyond against tyranny and hatred.
However, when we think of World War II, our thoughts usually fall to Europe and the battles in France, Germany and along the Baltic and Russian Front.
We, and those who make historical drama, have often forgotten about a ferocious war that raged on long after Europe had been reclaimed and Hitler was dead.
The battle in the Pacific Ocean was ferocious, bloody, harsh and unrelenting. It was a battle of hatred and bloodlust. It took place not on the fields and mountains but in the dense and unrelenting rainforest of islands that most had never heard of or would ever visit. The American soldiers, spurred on by the Pearl Harbour attacks, fought not only a fierce Japanese force, but also the harsh and unforgiving climate of the tropical paradises they found themselves in. They fought against bullets, nighttime attacks and jungle traps, as well as tropical disease, starvation and malaria. They arrived to kill and fought to survive.
It is this aspect of World War II that has become the subject of a new 10-part drama series. From the producers of Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, The Pacific has been made for the handsome sum of $230 million.
It features some of the most realistic war scenes ever committed to celluloid and gives a gritty and thought-provoking account of what the soldiers went through on scraps of land thousands of miles from home.
Starring a cast of virtual unknowns, The Pacific is a lot less romantic than Band of Brothers or indeed Saving Private Ryan.
Its cinematography is glorious but that is where the glory ends.
In the first episode, we witness a young medic being shot by his own troops in the middle of the night. The young lad goes to the toilet but someone opens fire, killing him.
Scene after scene of the brutality of the war begins to take shape and it is not long before the weariness of war sits firmly on the shoulders of these young marines. Unlike the war in Europe, the island nature of the fighting meant that these troops were cut off. A nighttime raid on the navy’s ships off the Solomon Islands in Guadalcanal left the Marines without supplies and they nearly starved. They also suffered from horrendous illness and malaria.
The Pacific is, as you would expect, superb. It was made in response to a series of letters that Spielberg and his production crew received in response to Band of Brothers from Pacific veterans. In these letters they asked when someone was going to tell their stories.
The events in the 10-part series are made up from the accounts of two GIs from the 1st Marine Division, Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie.
The accounts also feature information from John Basilone, who won the US Medal of Honor for fighting in Guadalcanal. The fact that this is based on true accounts adds to the sense of realism and, of course, as a viewer you get a real sense of history while you are watching it. Each episode opens with interviews from veterans and this adds greatly to the historical aspect of the programme. It adds context and focuses the viewer immediately.
The actors were also subjected to a rigorous training routine in preparation for the filming and spent months digging foxholes and eating military rations in the North Eastern tip of Australia. There is also an Irish face among the Americans. Martin McCann, from the Falls Road in Belfast, plays RV Burgin in episodes five, six, seven, nine and 10. He landed the role after first auditioning and then meeting with Spielberg in LA.
Unfortunately, The Pacific is only being shown on Sky Movies (it began on Easter Monday with a two-part introduction episode) but I am certain it will make its way onto terrestrial television sooner rather than later. It is an excellent piece of work and in many ways even better than the landmark Band of Brothers.
Recently I wrote about how I felt that TV3 was really upping its game and was doing a great job of integrating homemade programming with bought-in content.
I am not going back on this but I am fearful of one direction in which they are going. Caroline Morahan, who I thought had left our shores, is currently hosting a show about cosmetic surgery. In fact, that show is rather imaginatively called The Cosmetic Surgery Show.
Her co-host is the star of Dr 90210, Dr Robert Rey. Each week the show looks at Irish people who are undergoing cosmetic surgery in Ireland and, like all of these shows, there is a reveal in the studio at the end.
I have a small problem with this programme because I feel that, rather than being a look at cosmetic surgery in Ireland and why people are and are not pursuing it, the programme is little more than an advertisement for painful surgical procedures.
There is no discussion of what can go wrong or what has gone wrong in the past. Instead, it celebrates the medical accomplishments that can be made in this area and talks them up.
However, each person is entitled to their opinion and I don’t imagine for a second that, based on this programme, there will be a flood of people to plastic surgery clinics across the country.
I do, however, object to a slot where Dr 90210 himself basically advertises cosmetic surgery in a segment of photographs where he shows what can and cannot be done. All they are short of doing is slapping a price-tag across it and a phone number. Watching people’s journeys is one thing, blatant advertising is quite another.