Ending in silence

Two minutes silence for the Hull men who fell in the First World War was the fitting conclusion to the launch of the BBC 2 series, The Trench, at the Guildhall. In the moving documentary about the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, known as the Hull Pals, 24 volunteers from Hull re-enacted living conditions in the trenches, using official documents and war diaries as source material.

TV pals: Mark Palmer and Taff Gillingham.

The 10th Battalion is also the subject of a major exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London, and a book to accompany the TV series. Among the volunteers at the Guildhall event was Mark Palmer from Wawne village, who said taking part in the series had left the volunteers full of respect for those who had served in the war. He also described the privilege of meeting First World War veterans, of whom only 150 to 200 are still alive.

"It was overwhelming to speak to these men. Meeting them was an emotional experience for all of us," said Mark. "We had had an insight into the harsh living conditions of the trenches, but the difference is that we knew we were going home afterwards. "Overall it was an experience that we'll treasure for the rest of our lives." Thirty-six officers and 574 men of the East Yorkshire Regiment died in the First World War.

The documentary explains the part played by the Pals in the Battle of the Ancre on November 13, 1916, and in the failed attack at Oppy Wood on May 3, 1917, when 69 of its men were killed. A further 357 men from the Battalion were lost in the German Spring Offensive in 1918 and the Allied advances in the summer and autumn of that year.

At the Guildhall launch, Taff Gillingham, a military historian who played the platoon sergeant in the television series, dismissed criticisms that the BBC and the Hull volunteers were 'demeaning' the memory of those who fought in the First World War. "What demeans their memory is that the public doesn't know why these men died," he said. "This programme shows what really happened, and it's an opportunity to get the message across to people. The 24 men who took part are a cracking bunch of lads that this city should be proud of."