They Shall Not Grow Old, BBC Two

HAVING spent the last few months writing and researching a number of World War One stories by the time the 100th anniversary of the Armistice rolled around on November 11 I have to admit I felt like I'd had my fill of tragic tales from this most tragic of conflicts.

That was until BBC Two screened Peter Jackson's incredible They Shall Not Grow Old on Sunday evening and I sat almost mesmerised at what unfolded over one of the more astonishing 90 minutes of TV I've ever seen.

Jackson is well-known for stretching cinema's boundaries with his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy but with They Shall Not Grow Old, the director has found an unforgettable way to imprint the memories and experiences of World War One on a whole new generation by using one simple technique - colour.

While this may sound basic, the effect is breathtaking as Jackson's film adds colourisation to original footage from the Imperial War Museum's film archive, matching the images with veterans' audio about the reality of war on the front line from the BBC archive.

Suddenly these grainy images become vivid and real and the men you are watching look like you and your mates rather than relics of some bygone age. We see the colour of their hair, their eyes, their dreadful teeth and of course we see the blood from their injuries.

The moment when we see a group of soldiers magically turn from black and white into colour is almost magical especially when combined with their voices: "hello mum" says one as the camera follows them and you immediately wonder if he ever saw her again.

When combined with the memories of real life soldiers, whose memories were recorded years ago by the Imperial War Museum and the BBC the result is equally moving. One veteran recalls the trenches as "a sort of outdoor camping holiday with the boys, with a slight spice of danger to make it interesting" and he's not alone among the voices who recall the horror with a pang of nostalgia. Another remembers "the terrific lot of kindness" and it's clear that the camaraderie and comradeship was something many of the soldiers failed to replicate in civilian life. There were sexual freedoms too and the memories of one wide-eyed veteran of his first visit to a French brothel are as much of a juicy respite for us as it clearly was for them.

As the title of the film suggests Jackson's aim was both to preserve and reinforce these men's experiences for a new generation. It's hard to imagine how he could have succeeded any more emphatically.