The director of the BBC’s 1967 TV adaptation of Waugh’s Sword of Honour wrote an article in Radio Times on the occasion of its rebroadcast in November 1968. Donald McWhinnie, “Three From Evelyn Waugh,” Radio Times, 28 November 1968, p. 33. This is reproduced on the internet site which is selling a copy of that issue of the magazine. Here’s a link. The article is in frame number 5.
McWhinnie’s article opens:
The story of the second world war as most of us knew it is told in Sword of Honour. Not the heroics and the high drama, the cruelty and the senseless suffering, but the day-to-day routine. It is a hilarious and sad and absolutely accurate picture of six inglorious years…The trilogy is one of Evelyn Waugh’s finest achievements, bursting at the seams with comic invention, rich in humanity and full of memorable characters.
The article is headed by a photo of actor Edward Woodward who played Guy Crouchback in this early TV version. It has, alas, never been made available on videotape or DVD and is unlikely to be repeated on TV as it is filmed in black-and-white and extends over 270 minutes in three episodes. The British Film Institute preserves a copy and recently made it available for limited release in the UK. This is part of their Mediatheque program which also includes the BBC Arena Waugh Trilogy documentary, written and directed by Nicholas Shakespeare. Details may be found at this link. Any of our UK readers who have managed to see these or other productions in the BFI’s Mediatheque progam are invited to report on their experience by posting a comment below.
