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T H E AT R E
IT FEELS AUTHENTIC AND TERRIFYING... THERE ARE SKETCHES THAT MAKE YOUR BLOOD RUN COLD
Which is remarkable, given that they were stuck right in the middle of a war zone... Hislop: Someone said that, with The Wipers Times, what they do is ‘determined flippancy’, which I think is a fantastic description. They didn’t do it because they were idiots or twits, they did it because it was how they wanted to survive. I’m always amazed to see films about the First World War. They’re very good and very moving but you don’t see a joke, you don’t see anybody smile – that’s not reality, is it? Newman: There are sketches in it that make your blood run cold. It feels so authentic and terrifying, but amongst all the tension and almost certain death as they’re about to go over the top, they are still making jokes and that’s a great tonic for the human spirit. Hislop: I think that’s why we admire Pearson and Roberts so much. Part of our doing this is to preserve their memory in a sense – it’s done in their honour. Newman: Neither of them received any recognition in their own lifetime. The Wipers Times itself was quite famous for a brief window after the war, but Roberts should have come back to England and edited Punch, but he was never published again. Hislop: He wrote a bit of a memoir but didn’t get a publisher. We only found it when one of the relatives gave it to us; it’s unfinished but full of amazing stuff. So, how close to actual events is the play? Newman: All of it is true. We haven’t made up any of the factual detail although the order of events has been twisted around a bit. That was one of the great joys of the whole research process – coming across these brief memoirs by our heroes made the reality so much richer. They were big fans of booze and really did fight against the Temperance Society who wanted to have all alcohol banned in the trenches. So beyond the
(Above) “Don’t look now, but I think that’s Hislop sitting in the third row...”; (Below) The man himself, with co-writer Nick Newman
initial story we discovered all these other conflicts – them against the brass hats, the Temperance Society and then, of course, finally, them against the Germans. Hislop: Then we found out that Roberts won the Military Cross, and we now also know he was mentioned in dispatches three times. Pearson won the DSO [Distinguished Service Order] twice and also the Military Cross. They were extraordinarily gallant. Newman: Yes, it’s not as if they were doing this newspaper in safety well behind the lines. They were on the front line, going over the top, taking gun emplacements and being decorated for it. Hislop: They published 23 issues from about 1916 to 1918. There are gaps, of course, due to them being obliged to fight a war. And that’s the way they talk about it – ‘The damned high command will insist on us going and fighting from time to time’. That was their sense of humour. The Wipers Times is at The New Theatre, Cardiff, from 12-16 September, and there’s a post-show talk (free to ticket-holders) with Ian Hislop and Nick Newman after the 12 September performance. For more info, see newtheatrecardiff.co.uk
28 I CARDIFF LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk