This was published 9 years ago
Gallipoli, the mini-series 'a marvellous piece of drama'
By Melinda Houston
GALLIPOLI
★★★★
GallipoliCredit: Karen Hardy
TIME/DATE TBC, Nine
Unless you're particularly fond of war movies – or can't get enough of Gallipoli re-tellings – last week's opening instalment of this ambitious mini-series was good, but not great. Tonight, it gets great. Last week was not just a deeply familiar story, it was told in a deeply familiar style: young chaps shooting at each other, painstakingly gaining and losing ground, corpses piling up, toffy generals sipping sherry and dictating the bloody fate of thousands from the comfort of a state room. It was done with style, but there wasn't much to distinguish it from a dozen other similar tales. This week, though, Gallipoli is starting to develop a distinct personality. Last week, when people died, although it was sometimes shocking, they were really just bodies. This week, we're starting to get to know the players, recognise their personalities, and invest in their adventures. The action is reduced to a human scale, and it makes all the difference. The script by Christopher Lee (Secret Life of Us, Howzat) nicely captures the cultural differences between the English, the Aussies and the Turks without going overboard or falling into caricature. (Well, some of those toffy generals fall into caricature, but every story needs an out-and-out villain.) And the combination of the script, the direction and wonderful performances from a mostly young cast manages to say a lot with very little. This ep is most satisfying as a story of small moments, even as it deals with one of the defining events of the campaign: the armistice called so the Turks and the Imperial forces could bury their dead. Some of it's so gruesome you have to look away (the credits list not one but two persons solely responsible for "bodies") but it's the brief exchanges – equal parts laconic and heartfelt – that really pack a punch. This is evolving into a worthy successor/companion piece to the beloved 1981 film of the same name, and a marvellous piece of drama in its own right.