i stopped reading this for almost two months but i think, retrospectively, it was beneficial for me to take a breather. Ben also encapsulates the drawbacks of the National Bus Company’s centralised structure introduced towards the end of the 1960s and just to prove nothing is new looks at the issues of central versus local decision making. I read this many years ago, but just noticed they have recently made it into a movie , so I decided to revisit it.

What they encountered was an entrenched position as two opposing sides faced each other across a muddy desolate no man's land.In 1918 a group of British officers wait in an underground shelter for the German army to begin what was then the largest military offensive in human history. Interestingly, this was one of Laurence Oliver’s earliest works and one of the stepping stones for what would become one of the most illustrious acting careers of the 20th century. His was a career of attrition: “Robert noted that his father started as junior clerk in one corner of the office and forty-five years later ended up in the opposite corner as senior clerk, an average move, he computed, of five inches a year. C. Sherriff’s short (96 page), 1928 play about a group of officers in the trenches shortly before a German offensive - is very much of its time, and yet remains profoundly moving. After I read this book I wasnt satisfied, I put down the book and thought to myself 'well that's a kick in the teeth'.

The first revival of the work was in 1934, with Horne, Stoker and Smith reprising their original roles, and Reginald Tate as Stanhope. The opening vignette of an officer drying out a sock over a candle, the greeting of the new boy (Raleigh) with a glass of whisky and the bitter outcry when it’s discovered there’s no pepper – all these rank as authentic touches, and his dialogue was almost a form of faithful reportage.And a lot of people may dismiss the scenes and the conversations as slow but I think that is the whole point and what makes the. Whether that's putting new work on stages across the world or supporting our outreach and learning programmes, every purchase you make really does make a difference. While Hardy jokes, Osborne defends Stanhope and describes him as "the best company commander we've got".

A 1930 film version was followed by other adaptations, and the play set a high standard for other works dealing with similar themes, and influenced playwrights including Noël Coward. It’s a stunning and deeply moving evocation of the sacrifices made by so many young people during the conflict of 1914-1918 and well worth the hour or two it takes to read.Grindley's production was revived in 2011 for a UK tour from March to June, and transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End from July to September. Sherriff never takes the story out of the dugout, as somebody is always telling as to what took place in the trenches or on the battlefield.

Performed for more than two years in London, the play was one of the most popular productions of the 1920s. The most striking part was that he could have chosen any group of soldiers on either side of No Man’s Land and still had the same play, the same feelings and the same message. and our fellows stood up and carried the man back and the German officer fired some lights for them to see by. C. Sherriff, and I swear that for all intents and purposes I'm still in that officers' dug-out in Flanders while the noise and smoke of a concentrated enemy bombardment steadily increase in intensity. It held close to the original script although there were changes, the most obvious being the depiction on camera of the raid, which happens off-stage in the theatre production.Sherriff's good fortune with the phenomenal success of what is essentially a mediocre play depended in large part on the appearance in the intital production of the work - by the Incorporated Stage Society in a two-day run at the Apollo Theatre in December 1928 - of the 21-year old Lawrence Olivier (directed by the equally unknown James Whale). She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line – without being doped with whisky – I'd go mad with fright. I imagine that much of this comes from the author’s personal experience on the frontline during World War One, and I believe this influence is what makes Journey’s End so sensitive and successful. Hibbert, who has tried to fake an eye injury and is considered a coward by Stanhope, tries to remain in bed. Meet Olga, Masha, and Irina, warm and cultured young sisters who were reared in the exciting hubbub of Moscow, but have been living in the dull, gossipy backwaters of Russia for far too long.