The BBC has revealed how it plans to mark the centenary of World War I.
The Ark stars Hermione Norris and Kerry Fox as nurses in a field hospital in France
Programming and events will span four years, across television, radio and online, from 2014-2018, echoing the time frame of the war itself.
“I want 2014 to be remembered for our national commemoration of all those who served on the battlefield and on the Home Front,” said BBC chief Tony Hall.
“And a chance for us all to learn something new about a war we think we know well.”
The season will include 130 newly commissioned programmes, spanning almost 2,500 hours.
Among them will be two major TV dramas on BBC One: The Ark will take viewers into the lives of the medics and their patients at a fictional field hospital behind the trenches in France; while The Passing Bells tells the story of the war through the eyes of two very ordinary young men.
On BBC Two, Ian McDiarmid stars in 37 Days, which will explore the politics behind the build-up to war. The events will also be retold on BBC Radio 4 in 1914 Day-by-Day, a 42-part series featuring archive news excerpts, from the day of the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand to the outbreak of war five weeks later.
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