Plot

Based on the remarkable true story of a satirical newspaper published on the front lines of World War One, this poignant yet comedic drama revels in the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Just after World War I, Captain Fred Roberts (Ben Chaplin) goes for a job as a newspaper journalist and tells the sub-editor how, in the trenches in 1916, he discovered a printing press in working order. Helped by ex-printer Sergeant Harris (Steve Oram) and with his friend Jack Pearson (Julian Rhind-Tutt) as his assistant, he sets up the Wipers Times--the name coming from the soldiers' pronunciation of the town Ypres. Despite disapproval from officious Lieutenant Colonel Howfield (Ben Daniels), but with backing from sympathetic General Mitford (Sir Michael Palin), they produce 23 issues of a satirical magazine (its articles represented on-screen in black-and-white) which boosts morale and even gets mentioned in the Tatler. The press is destroyed by a German shell, but another is found and the paper's title changed to fit in with wherever the regiment is deployed. Pearson and Roberts are awarded gallantry medals, but when the sub-editor offers Roberts only the job of crossword compiler, Roberts moves to Canada as a prospector, while Pearson marries and opens a hotel in Argentina. Both survived into the 1960s.—don @ minifie-1

When Captain Fred Roberts (Ben Chaplin) discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times--"Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humor, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive, and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved to be a huge success with the troops on the Western Front. It was, above all, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. In his spare time, Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.

Discovering a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium, Captain Fred Roberts (Ben Chaplin) decides to publish a satirical magazine called "The Wipers Times". Subversive and full of gallows humor, the 'Times' was also very funny. Produced under enemy fire and gas attacks, against all odds the magazine proved to be a huge success with the troops on the Western Front. A testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.—Mark McCullagh