BBC ‘enemy’ Murdoch in war documentary

Rupert Murdoch, one of the BBC’s fiercest critics, is to discuss his father’s role in exposing the disastrous Gallipoli campaign for the corporation’s First World War centenary programming.

The media mogul has been interviewed for a BBC2 examination of Gallipoli in which his father Keith played a key role in telling the truth about the military campaign in Turkey which led to a commander of the operation being relieved of duty and troops being evacuated.

The documentary is among the first batch in a four-year programme of TV and radio shows to commemorate the conflict.

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They will include dramas, documentaries and programmes which will look back in real-time at the day by day events as they unfolded 100 years ago as Britain and Europe descended into war.

The season begins with a four-part BBC1 series Britain’s Great War, hosted by Jeremy Paxman which looks at how the nation was changed by the conflict.

Sir Max Hastings and Niall Ferguson are among those who will give different perspectives in BBC2 programmes, while historian David Olusoga will look at the role played by troops from around the Empire who fought alongside Europeans.

Dramas include The Ark – featuring Hermione Norris and Kerry Fox – revolving around the lives of frontline medics, and 37 Days with a cast including Ian McDiarmid and Tim Pigott-Smith which will tell the story of the sequence of events which led to the war.

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Radio 2 will broadcast Real Time World War One, presented by Jeremy Vine, which will allow listeners to experience events and breaking news from the continent as they would have happened a century earlier, and Radio 4 will broadcast 1914 – Day By Day.

Radio 4 will also use its own archive recordings and those of the Imperial War Museum to broadcast the testimonies of those involved for Voices Of The Great War.

Director-general Tony Hall said: “This season is going to have a profound impact on the way we think about World War One.”