Matinée - The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks with live piano accompaniment

In 2016, Great War Huts had the pleasure of screening the freshly restored ‘The Battle of the Somme’ - one of the first feature films - in our original First World War Recreation Hut. The live piano soundtrack was provided by the inimitable Stephen Horne. It was a unique opportunity to see the original film, with the original live score, in an original Great War building. The two performances quickly sold out and many people have asked when we were going to hold a similar event.

We are extremely pleased to say that on Saturday 10th June, we will be showing ‘The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks’; the follow-up feature to the Battle of the Somme, once again accompanied by the brilliant Stephen Horne in our original First World War Recreation Hut. There will also be a special introduction by Dr Toby Haggith, Senior Curator at the Imperial War Museum, who oversaw the restoration of the film.

The sister film to The Battle of the Somme, The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks was filmed during the later part of the Somme offensive, between September and November 1916. Also filmed by cinematographer Geoffrey Malins, it contains the first shots of tanks in use at the Front – a sequence which apparently caused plenty of “oohs” and “aahs” from the audience on the opening night. In between the battle sequences, the film shows the human side of war as the British soldiers queue up to receive mail and eat their rations. It also shows fraternization between German prisoners and their British captors. Box office takings were even higher in the first three months of release than for its predecessor The Battle of the Somme, due to footage of the previously unseen tanks.

The film was digitally restored in 2012 by the IWM.

The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks has often been overshadowed by The Battle of the Somme but it is certainly a cinematic masterpiece in its own right. To see the original film, with its original, upbeat, live soundtrack, in a genuine First World War building is an experience not to be missed!

Doors 1:30pm - performance starts 2pm

Stephen Horne has long been internationally considered one of the leading silent film accompanists. A house pianist at London’s BFI Southbank for over thirty years, he has played at all the major UK venues and recorded music for many DVD and online releases of silent films. Although principally a pianist, he often incorporates other instruments into his performances, sometimes simultaneously. He regularly performs internationally and in recent years his accompaniments have met with acclaim at film festivals in Pordenone, Bologna, San Francisco, Telluride, Paris, Cannes, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Seoul, Istanbul, Berlin and Vienna.

Dr Toby Haggith is a historian who joined the Imperial War Museum’s Film Department in 1988. He has a PhD in Social History from the University of Warwick and has published various essays on film and history. In 2000 he became head of non-commercial access to the film and video collection and responsible for devising the daily Public Film Show programme. In 2001, he started the IWM Student Film Festival (now the IWM Short Film Festival) and was closely involved in the creation and recording of the musical tracks on the Museum’s DVD release of the digitally restored 1916 film, The Battle of the Somme and the 1917 film, The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks.