Birdsong (2012)

Two-Part Telefilm | War Romance
UK/USA | English & French | 2h47m
Dir: Philip Martin | Scr: Abi Morgan | Novel: Sebastian Faulks | Ph: Julian Court | Prod: Lynn Horsford | Mus: Nicholas Hooper | Ed: Kristina Hetherington | PD: Grant Montgomery | AD: Nicole Northridge & Katie Tuxford | Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Clémence Poésy, Joseph Mawle, Richard Madden, Laurent Lafitte, Matthew Goode, Anthony Andrews, Marie Josee Croze


An officer in the British army, serving in the trenches at the Somme during the First World War, remembers the brief, but passionate, affair that he had with a married French woman in the same region several years earlier, in this handsome and affecting two-part drama. The performances are all good, with Redmayne’s nuanced turn in the central role proving particularly affecting; the production values are outstanding; and the pacing, for the most part at least, is unusually and delightfully leisurely. It does, however, feel a tad rushed towards the end, and may well have benefited from being an extra half an hour or so longer.