Using podcast and documentary techniques to capture World War One

Applying documentary audio and narrative techniques to a new World War One archaeology site. This interview was produced using audio alone at the location in France to allow the audience to visualise the site by using imagery with the crater as a clock face to understand the positioning on the battlefield on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. This podcast was developed for publication to mark the 104th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme when the crater blew at 7.20am on July 1st 2020, the imagined clock face of the circular crater is the perimeter of this audio journey with historian Colin Winn. The audio package including written article was co edited by Associate Professor Fiona Graham using Production House methods and published by France 24 News. The new evidence, images and personal stories discovered create a picture of what happened in more detail in both the first and the last days of the Battle of the Somme. Interdisciplinary research with documentary makers, forensic scientists, historians and archaeologists has revealed and captured using film and audio how Hawthorn Ridge was used by the German front line as a defence and that there is in fact not just one crater. The site is explored through collaborative work by the Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association with Staffordshire University supported by Erasmus, French communities and British partners