The granddaughter of a second world war soldier assembles films, photos and diaries of his extraordinary exploits in this poignant and thrilling documentary
There’s warmth, intimacy and real archive fascination to this true-life tale from the second world war: a rare example of a regular soldier being allowed to tell his own story. It’s a
BBC Scotland documentary, co-produced by actor and writer Carina Birrell, who shares with us the remarkable history of her grandfather, Harry Birrell, who was given a cine camera as a boy in Glasgow in the late 20s. It gave him a lifelong passion for the cinema and for documenting his life in home movies.
Carina has had access to 400 reels of film in six great metal trunks, kept in her dad’s garden shed along with portfolios of photographs and thrilling diaries, all telling the stories of Harry’s childhood and youth in Scotland, and his service in the second world war, commanding a Gurkha platoon and travelling in
India,
Pakistan, Nepal and Burma.