A timely introduction to Mindset Communications in Reigate led to me having the privilege of writing the opening and closing lines to this remembrance video, commissioned from Mindset by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The video is being shown over various media throughout the country and at a remembrance service in France, attended by members of the Royal Family. Tweeted by the PM last night, it looks set to be viewed by millions over the course of this centenary of remembrance for the first day of the infantry battle on the Somme – the worst day of loss in British military history.
The brief was to write four opening lines and a pay-off line to weave in with the famous fourth verse from Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen (‘They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old…’) and testimonials from descendants of men who fought on 1st July 1916, capturing their sense of duty, their courage and our gratitude to them. I decided to address the lines directly to the fallen in the second person – to ‘you’, not ‘them’. I think it makes a difference.
It was an emotional job but a pleasure to have the opportunity to contribute to something so important.
