Saltemarsh goes into convulsions, receives mouth-to-mouth, pukes into the gob of Lieutenant Robert Lawrence. Classy, but you expect little else from the Scots Guards.
I saw Tumbledown when it was first broadcast, back in 1988. I remember there was a hullabaloo about it. I remember buying the Radio Times that week, because there was a cover story on the programme. I remember talking about it a lot on my primary’s fourth year school journey, and drawing a picture of Lawrence getting shot in the head on the cover of my journey diary. But apart from that, I can recall very little of the content of the drama, except that Colin Firth as Lawrence was very cold, unlikable even, and very unlike the ‘heroes’ of my war comics.
So it was interesting to watch it for the second time, and only the first in nineteen years. It’s pretty good, and doesn’t try to prettify war.
Screenage Kicks 