CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night’s TV: Ready For War? is the closest we’ll ever get to a glimpse of the horrors of WWI
Stacey Dooley: Ready For War?
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Matt Baker’s Travels In The Country: USA
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This is what a real ‘reality show’ looks like. Amateur army recruits were slogging through mud and training for trench warfare, as a celebrity from Strictly urged them on.
But these young men — a welder, a jeweller, a masseur, a florist — didn’t bicker, or drop out, or feud and whinge. It wasn’t a game. The raw young soldiers were Ukrainian volunteers, on a crash course somewhere in England with British Army professionals.
And at the end of five weeks’ basic training, they were returning to fight for their homeland, and to face the very real danger of being maimed or killed in battle.
The unflinching courage they showed as Stacey Dooley — an investigative journalist before she found fame on the dancefloor — followed them on Ready For War? (BBC3, repeated tonight on BBC1) was humbling. And the bitter frustration of the British troops at being unable to join them was palpable. ‘As a soldier,’ said one officer through gritted teeth, ‘I feel uncomfortable saying goodbye to you while we remain safe here in England.’
There was no doubting how physically tough the Ukrainians are. They dug foxholes and slept in six inches of water, then laughed it off in the morning. They learned hand-to-hand combat, how to overpower an enemy soldier at close quarters and kill with a swift thrust of a knife.
Pictured: Stacey Dooley. Amateur army recruits were slogging through mud and training for trench warfare, as the Strictly celebrity urged them on
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: The unflinching courage the young men showed as Stacey Dooley — an investigative journalist before she found fame on the dancefloor — followed them on Ready For War? (BBC3, repeated tonight on BBC1) was humbling
This was the closest we will ever have to a glimpse of what our grandfathers and great-grand-fathers must have experienced, ordinary lads marching off in village brigades to the slaughtering fields of Flanders in 1914.
One man, Serhii, showed Stacey footage filmed on his phone of Russian tanks rolling into the outskirts of Kyiv in February last year. His wife and daughters hid in the basement of their home for a month before the invaders retreated. He was steeling himself to kill Russians, he said: ‘I will do whatever it takes to live in peace.’
Yaroslav, 28, haunted by the sight of families killed by a rocket strike in Kyiv, echoed his determination: ‘Better I die than some children.’
No one showed self-pity and all fear was hidden. But a single moment of genuine emotion from translator Iliia, choking up because she knew that many of these young men could soon be dead, was more affecting than all the fake tears on every reality show. Welder Pasha, 30, asked Stacey to let him record a farewell message for his parents. He had been in Belgium when the invasion began, and he could have stayed safe in the West, but he chose to fight.
Dooley is pictured with young soldiers as they fire rifles on Ready For War?
‘For me, it’s easy,’ he claimed. ‘Guys who have children, much more harder. I hope of course that I will survive, but the chances are not so big, is the truth.’
And then he reminded Stacey of the cost to all of Europe if Ukraine is left to its fate. ‘I hope you will not be in our position, never. That is why we are fighting.’
Matt Baker was missing his homeland as he explored Florida and its farms on Travels In The Country: USA (More4). Even the Everglades reminded him of County Durham, though there’s not so many alligators north of Middlesbrough.
He was delighted by the vintage tractor collection on a sugar cane ranch, and enjoyed a chance to go scuba diving at a man-made coral reef plantation.
But he was less thrilled to be hunting pythons, an invasive species thriving in the swamps. His guide, Dusty, was barefoot. Matt donned his wellies.
‘I call them concrete boots,’ said Dusty doubtfully. ‘Not Willies.’ Laughing, Matt corrected him: ‘Wellies!’ Dusty shook his head. ‘Thought you said Willies. After Willie Nelson.’
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