"Battleground - 1978 TV series" Topic

I'm sure the 1978 TV series Battleground will have featured in numerous posts on TMP, and I hope in time I'll find and read them.

For me, returning to the hobby after two decades away from it, I find I'm enjoying learning about the history of it almost as much as doing the various activities of reading and research, figure collecting, painting, etc.

When I discovered the series existed, I tried to find out as much as I could about it, and I've decided to post the fruits of these researches, which draw together a fair amount of info from other sources, as well as adding thoughts of my own, in a series of posts on my blog.

There were 6 episodes, and, altho' two have been lost, my series is also in 6 parts, in homage to the programmes that inspired it. I posted the first instalment, a kind of introduction to this fascinating topic – a popular media capsule of the hobby, lost in time – earlier today:

link

I'll post a new part each night, over this week, till I've covered all four episodes, and also as much related material as I could find. I hope people enjoy having a look at this 'umble 'omage as much as I enjoyed discovering and learning about the programme itself.

I can recall the TV series but not much about it apart for Edward Woodward hosting it and also their was a WW2 Normandy Battle in one of the episodes played out by Gavin and Bernard Lyall. How do I know that little bit of detail? Well on my bookshelf, probably never been off it since 1978, untill tonight, is a rule book, printed by Pan, priced £1.00 GBP (now I see it sells for £13.95 GBP), "Operation Warboard" written by Gavin and Bernard Lyall and were the rules used for that paticular episode.

Don't think it was ever shown on UTV (Ulster Television), but recall reading about it – perhaps in a stack of old MM and Battle I bought as a school jumble.

I recall another show in the 80s though – was Stuart Asquith in it? It was in a blacked out studio, and I vaguely remember them using red and blue Kriegspiel blocks.

Thanks for the blog post and research, looking forward to the rest!

Thanks for the responses so far.

@ boy wundyr – I hope you enjoy the episode by episode posts of the next few days!

@ zacklaws – is your fresh-off-the-shelf 1978 copy of Operation Warboard the Pan paperback with the Panther tank etc on the cover? And if it is, would you fancy selling it? I'm in the UK … Are you also?

@ MH Dee – yeah, I've heard there was another later TV show devoted to wargaming, with (I think) two hosts, one male one female, but I can't recall where I read about it. I didn't see either series at the time: we didn't have a TV when Battleground came out (I was only 6!), and I was blissfully unaware of the 80s one. Tho' by then we had a TV, and I was already getting heavily into toy soldiers.

Game of War with Angela Ripon.

link

I saw 2 episodes while on holiday at Peter Gilder's Wargames Holiday Centre. I was there for the 5 nighter with a friend. I had gastro-enteritis and watched various tapes while my friend and 2 other guests played Italian Wars, Sudan, Pony Wars, WWII and so on. Never did see the whole series.

Cheers! Angela Rippon hosting a wargaming TV show. That's so bizarre for UK people of a certain age. Stills of the studio don't look quite like I thought, but the red and blue markers were correct.

There was another similar show about 15 years ago, bit more hi-tech.

Nice idea for a blog btw. I'm fascinated with wargaming's brief dalliances with mainstream media.

I can solve the mystery of the fate of the series: it retired to the antipodes, having being bought in – I think – the early eighties by the then main wargame club here in SA, SAHWS (South Australian Historical Wargames Society). I recall seeing it running at one or two of our little local shows back then. As to where it is now… I imagine the worn out tapes are probably collecting dust in someone's shed, or some such.

@ LWG: thanks for the 'heads up' and link re Game of War.

@ Henry Martini: it would be fantastic if someone had the lost episodes on one of those 'worn out tapes'. I'd like to encourage any antipodean gamers to have a rummage in their sheds if they think they might!

SAHWS – now there's a blast from the past. I was a member for a few years back then. Clubrooms were in Gawler Place and then Currie Strret if I remember correctly……..

There was another similar show about 15 years ago, bit more hi-tech.

Time Commanders.

>>>>>@ zacklaws – is your fresh-off-the-shelf 1978 copy of Operation Warboard the Pan paperback with the Panther tank etc on the cover? And if it is, would you fancy selling it? I'm in the UK … Are you also?<<<<<

Yes it is that edition with the Panther on the front and dated 1978, but despite the fact I will never use the rules and it will probably sit on my bookshelf for a good while longer, I would never part with it and I am also in the UK

@ zacklaws – ok, I don't blame you! I'd like to get a copy of that edition tho', so… if you do ever change your mind ;-)

@ anybody and everybody: if you have the 1978 Pan/MacMillan edition Operation Warboard, in good nick (& you're not asking silly money)… I'd like to buy it!

Hello again,

I do hope people will return to this thread? Every day this week I'll post the next instalment of my short Battleground series.

Tonight's post is on the first episode, originally aired 23rd Feb 1978, in which Duncan MacFarlane fields the Royalists, with the Parliamentarians under John Tilson, in the ECW Battle of Edgehill, 1652:

Battleground '78 – Edgehill

Edward Woodward does an excellent job as presenter, and Tilson and MacFarlane start the series in a quietly understated manner…

Just over a year ago, I found out that the British Film Institute have the full set of programmes so I tried to arrange a private viewing.

However, I was told that I could not have a viewing unless I provided evidence of why I wanted to view the series – according to the email I received, to get a viewing I would need to be in the process of compiling some form of article, research project etc. -. They also said that each viewing would be restricted to one person as the viewings are confined to booths and the viewer would have to wear headphones. Finally, no recording equipment would be allowed in the booth.

I found this totally frustrating as their archives are crammed with all sorts of t.v. material on all sorts of subjects yet only allow access to a minority of the public who are researching in a particular subject. Why they cannot, or will not, open their archives to the general public who might have a genuine interest in a subject I do not know. After all, what is the point of having complete episodes of Battleground or Grandstand etc. when they are preventing the public from viewing them?

They also informed me that they are unable to put material onto disc due to prohibitive costs and the amount of time and resources it would take to deal with such requests.

In the end, I abandoned this idea.

I apologise for the rant but this is something I do feel strongly about.

I remember watching these on Central TV as it was at the time. We also received Yorkshire on another telly and I'm sure it wasn't screened on there. I was 15 at the time and I seem to think it was on in the morning during the school summer holidays. I think I missed one or two, but the one that sticks out in my mind is the ACW one, Gettysburg was it? I seem to remember it featured on the front of Battle, is it the one in the photo above? I prayed there'd be a second series, or repeats, but sadly nothing. I was hunting for clips on Youtube recently, but there's not much out there unless I was putting the wrong info into the search engine.

@ jeffwt @ volleyfire: I suspect the issues of accessibility via the BFI and non-appearance on YouTube are closely linked! No doubt it's all to do with issues of ownership and copyright.

I've long wanted to see Abel Gance's Napoleon, preferably in its non-Coppola incarnation (which I'm part way through watching at present), but, sadly, for reasons of copyright and ownership, that appears to be, at present, highly unlikely.

Despite your understandable frustration, it's good for me to find out about the BFI situation: since I am indeed writing a series of articles about Battleground, maybe they'll grant me a viewing? Then I'll be able to write more fully (if not perhaps illustrate) the two missing episodes!

Seb
I was lucky enough to be at the premiere of the BFI restored version @ the Odeon leicester Square all those years ago with live orchestra conducted by Carl Davis and a member of the cast in the audience.
My father and I were sat two rows in front of the whole Monty Python Team in a cinema littered with film and tv people.
Great movie.
keep the faith (courage mes braves en avant)
Guy

Very nostalgic – I have the Battle mag, but have never seen the programmes. One day :-)

Cool to see part two Sebastian, I'll check in for more later today.

@ Von Trinkenessen (great name!): I thought for a minute that was a very tongue-in-cheek reply on the 'Battleground' theme… I was thinking 'Battleground… restored by the BFI? Shown at the Odeon Leicester Square? … What gives?'

It was only when I saw 'live orchestra conducted by Carl Davis that I twigged,,, 'Ah, Abel Gance's Napoleon… right! Yep, I did mention that!!'

I almost flew out to Hamsterjam when it was performed there more recently. There's sooo much to enjoy in The 'Dam, after all!

@ boy wundyr: Cheers! I'm getting posts three and four ready tonight. I do hope people check back each night for the next episode!

Enjoying reading the articles so far, Seb. You're probably correct about the rights and accessibility.. still frustrating though that there seems to be a reluctance to make their library more accessible to the general public.

Considering what archive tv you can find on youtube, dailymotion etc. I do often wonder where the clips come from – especially those from the 1970's etc when video recorders were rare.

Well you can watch all of the Time Commanders series with the Hamster here.

YouTube link

All done using the early Total War:Rome engine, before it was released IIRC.

Hello again,

Today my 3rd Battleground post went online over at my blog. This time it's about the 2nd episode of the show, which was given over to a refight of Waterloo:

Battleground '78 – Waterloo

John Braithwaite stood in for Wellington, with Peter Gilder as Napoleon.

This is, like the Gettysburg episode, and thanks in no small part to Gilder's charm, one of the stronger showings in the series.

Hope y'all might enjoy it? Please leave comments here and on my blog if you do.

Seb

Thanks for posting these!

First shown March 9th 1978 according to your blog Sebastian, which was a Thursday. So Tyne Tees aired these earlier in the year than Central. Central was definitely a morning programme so must have been a Saturday.
Anyway I couldn't find any Battleground on Youtube, but I did find Peter Cushing!

YouTube link

@ Volleyfire: that Peter Cushing short is great! My wife was watching a Cushing/Lee Hammer Dracula movie today, as it happens… What a cool dude he was!

Part four of the series went online today: episode 4, Chalons-sur-Marne.

Battleground, '78 – Chalons-sur-Marne

This was the only 'Ancients' battle of the series. Tomorrow is the final (and probably best) episode, Gettysburg. And on Saturday I'll conclude with some thought and acknowledgements.

If you enjoy these posts – and I hope you might – please comment on TMP, and over at my blog.

Cheers

Seb

Hello again

Battleground '78 – Gettysburg

There was a little hiccup in my scheduling, and the post on the Gettysburg episode, which should've gone online yesterday, only appeared today. Still, at least it's up now! It's the penultimate instalment in my homage to 'Battleground', the 1978 series that brought wargaming 'to the masses' (!?) for the first time, at least as a subject in itself, on British TV.

The Gettysburg episode was the last in the six-part series (episodes 3 and 5, The Battle of the Nile, 1798, and 'somewhere in France', 1944, are – as far as I know – lost, sadly*), and you can see why: it's arguably the most impressive in terms of figures and scenery. These were, I believe, the same stuff as used in the Callan movie, of 1974.

This is also the most heavily illustrated of my posts (some samples below), 'cause the game was so photogenic. Sadly the video stills are pretty poor. But I think (or should that be hope?) this might add a certain patina of antique charm.

A final post will go online later today, summarising things a little, and filling in some info on various related threads. I hope people will enjoy it all. I thoroughly enjoyed finding out about this series, and then researching about it. I hope one day, if a suitable source survives, it might be dusted off and made public.

Cheers

Seb

* Thanks to Jeff (jeffwt) we now know that the BFI have the series in their archives… perhaps they have the missing episodes as well?

Back in the 70's British commercial TV was much more regional than it is now and had some 'core' programmes and various slots for regional programmes.
This series was produced by Tyne Tees (which was the North Eastern regional station around Newcastle, etc) and shown in some other regions but not others. Living in the neighbouring region of Yorkshire it was never broadcast here. I'd love to see it one day, but for now thanks for these postings.

The Peter Cushing clip is great – figures "made from compressed paper" though? Wonder what happened to his collection (or, indeed, that of Derek Guyler, another 'celebrity' gamer) when he died.

And thanks Sebastian for bringing this bit of nostalgia back to us

I remember talking to Peter Gilder about the making of Battleground.
He said that the Chalons episide in particular took ages to film. This was because part of Edward Woodward's script included the line 'Theodoric and his Visigoths' which somehow came out in the first take as 'Noddy and his Visigoths', which caused everyone to burst out laughing. So many subsequent takes were ruined by either Woodward or one of the crew laughing when he came to that at that point that they had to suspend filming for a while.

@ seneffe: that's a great anecdote. Could you perhaps post it on my blog (on the Châlons post of course) as well? Cheers, Seb

Thanks for the posts Seb.
It was these programmes that got me into wargaming many moons ago. My favourite was the Napoleonic naval wargame where I remember one of the participants landed a couple of ships guns on a small island. Funny the little details that the mind remembers all these years later ! It inspired me to try and build my own crude ships out of balsawood.

@ Aubrey: thanks for the positive feedback and the memories. It's particularly interesting to hear that it was the Naval battle, one of the missing episodes, which was such a formative experience for you. I'm definitely going to try and visit the BFI and watch those episodes!

Sebastian- of course, happy to.
It's Peter's anecdote of course, not mine. He was a fantastic raconteur. I remember some great tales from his time as a fighter pilot in the 1950s, his views of other figure ranges and designers- not all of which are printable, and some of the hilarious commentaries he made of guest's manoeuvres at the WHC when he was running it. Even if you were on the receiving end, you couldn't help laughing.

Sorry Seb, having some trouble posting- my settings maybe. Will try again over the weekend.

Not sure if anyone has been browsing youtube recently but… have a look at this

YouTube link

YouTube link

YouTube link

Happy Christmas

sorry… forgot this

YouTube link

Just watched it . Very nostalgic . Will you be posting the other episodes.
Cheers.
Losh