We won't know the full facts about the first and only mutiny in the British Army until the relevant documents are declassified in 2017, but the DVD release of this splendid BBC series will do much to revive interest in Percy Toplis and his role in the 1917 Etaples rebellion, . It might also reawaken some of the controversy that surrounded the original broadcast in 1986, when questions were asked in Parliament about left-wing bias within the BBC and whether licence payers' money was being well spent on programmes that shamed the nation.
Much has been made of the factual inaccuracies in Alan Bleasdale's script, which was adapted from a book by William Allison and John Farley. Indeed, Julain Putkowski, who served as an historical adviser on the series, announced during the four-part transmission that the producers had ignored his advice and perpetuated several fallacies to heighten their drama. Subsequently, information has emerged to suggest that Toplis wasn't even in France on the eve of Passchendaele and the project has been written off in some quarters as a shameful sham.
But this ignores the many plus points, such as the provocative manner in which Bleasdale caught a seismic shift in British social history, as the lower classes began to recognise the fallibility of the ruling elite and mount the first challenges to the Establishment that would culminate in the first Labour government in 1929. He also shattered the myth of the heroic Tommy by daring to state that rogues also manned the trenches and were often as guilty of bestial behaviour as the Kaiser's troops, as they did their bit for King and Country.
The naysaying also detracts from the excellence of Paul McGann's performance as Toplis, the Derbyshire pit boy whose gift for mimicry not only enabled him to impersonate officers for his own gain, but also to expose the ineptitude of the aristocratic top brass, who senselessly sent a generation into the killing fields of Flanders in a similar spirit of self-interest that prompted Toplis's own deceptions. Few contemporary programmes display anything like the same courage.
This story of high romance, hilarious impudence and savage retribution tells the story of a World War I mutiny which took place at the harsh British training camp Etaples, France in 1917 on the eve of the Passchendaele battle.
Set in the trenches, it follows the life of the leader of the main British mutiny, Percy Toplis: a rake, rogue and master of disguise who became the most wanted man in Britain.
Written by Alan Bleasdale, The Monocled Mutineer stars Paul McGann, Cheri Lunghi and Penelope Wilton. The series was never repeated due to a government ban on the BBC from screening it again due to the sensitivity of the subject matter.
