It was bloody awful. I attempted to watch the first episode, especially as the battalion concerned was the one in which I started my army sojourn in 1975, before I joined the ARA (4th- white over green, rectangular shoulder flash, it was a militia battalion in WWII & became a CMF battalion from 1948).
Problems- poor to so-so acting; too many commercials; too many cliches (evil British generals sending young ANZACs to their deaths while advice from good Australian generals is ignored- ironic as both Birdwood and Bridges were British; "We've landed too far north!"; younger brother in love with older brother's missus; unsung hero Sergeant doing the near-impossible for his boys; brave young officer dieing a gallant death in the face of an overwhelming attack; referring to the British landing as if only one regiment was landed; etcetera ad nauseum); too many flashbacks disrupting the narrative flow; the actors have poor weapon-handling skills and look uncomfortable handling the weapons; some equipment problems that 99% of viewers won't notice (ie using WWII model SMLE, not WWI).
Pluses- they did their homework on the uniforms of both Turks and ANZAC's; the fact the British and French both landed is mentioned; "Charlie Jorgensen, Invincible ANZAC Hero" did not make an appearance- the characters were fallibly human, not the usual 2D caricatures.
I didn't watch the second episode and wasn't alone- according to the paper today viewers dropped from 1.6M to 520k- putting the show in fourth spot across the six primary channels.
If you want a good WWI ANZAC series I think ANZACs ( link ) is still the pick of the bunch.
Cheers.
Dal.
PS If you saw the US screening of ANZACs in the 1980's, you saw a butchered compilation of Paul Hogan cameos. The series itself was quite good and Hogan was not a major character.
rebases some old soldiers.
