Drama of the Week

Mrs Adeline Washington is one of only four black American YMCA workers, sent to support the 200,000 black American soldiers arriving in France in 1918. In this story by Patricia Cumper and Jonathan Ruffle, Mrs Washington's duties should keep her away from the fighting. But when she uncovers a shocking secret about the US 371st Regiment, currently in the frontline at Esnes-en-Argonne, she has to find any way to get there - and fast. Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago, telling untold stories about the war in Gaza, Gallipoli, Serbia, Mesopotamia, Russia, Macedonia, Italy, Turkmenistan and Tanzania, as well as on the Western Front. And through it all, we've followed the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years. Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.