I sympathise with John Walker’s disappointment. Personally, I got more out of the TV film than I had expected, but, arguably, I had excessively low expectations! Also, if the film was produced specially for showing on 11 November (I don’t know if it was), that too might have set some limits on the writer and director.

 

We can all agree that Kipling was a hugely complex man – though we might quarrel about the exact nature of the complexity. Certainly the jingo patriotism that was shown in the TV film was one aspect of his personality, but not the only aspect. (As I understand it ‘The Army of a Dream’ was used for propaganda purposes, which is not surprising in view of its ostensible message. Yet the story has a strangely ambiguous ending.)  Also, biographers seem to agree that there were serious tensions in the family at Batemans, which were shown, but not developed, in the TV film.

 

I certainly agree that it would have been good to see some of the effects of the war on Kipling’s life: his work with the War Graves Commission, which has been mentioned, and on his literary work. As far as I’m concerned, some of his memorable and disturbing stories come straight out of the war: ‘A Madonna of the Trenches’, ‘Sea Constables’, ‘The Gardener’ – not to mention ‘Mary Postgate’.