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The Start of WW1
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
The setup
Watch on YouTube
Watch onYouTube
The premise
Here’s the bit.
In 1914, a general gathers his officers around a briefing table, where they first assume the hard decision is whether to order tea or coffee. He instead announces a great war and works through the chain of alliances linking Austria, Serbia, Russia, Germany, France and Belgium, using a schoolboy comparison about punching Maltravers's best friend Blenkinsop to explain why Britain would be drawn in. The officers follow the logic just far enough to realise they might be killed for it, and still have no idea where Bosnia is.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 4
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
Because an Austrian has been killed by a Serb in Bosnia. And that means war.
I support Arsenal.
So, where is Bosnia again?
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
Reused in the 2014 Frightful First World War Special, broadcast for the centenary of the war's outbreak.
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
More from Horrible Histories.
