A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Whether the events portrayed at Passchendale are true or not exactly accurate,this is still moving and emotive drama.Maybe useful as a training manual on how not to treat recruits, as bullying and brutality can still raise their ugly heads.Everyone has a breaking point and rather than instilling pride the Redcaps degraded and abused to the extent the soldiers were stripped of their dignity and had nothing to lose in mutiny.The drama certainly gets the viewer on the side of Percy Topliss,i was urging his escape from the pernicious official Woodhall.Whether mutiny jeopardised the allied cause,the underlying themes showed the complexity of the situation and how discipline stretched to inhumanity can backfire.

Absolute rubbish to say Toplis was at the supposed mutiny, as his Regiment was on its way to India at the time of the Etaples disturbance. He may have had a colourful life, but was a rapist, thief and coward. He spent many months in various jails and prisons, say little if any front line action, and shot at unarmed policemen to ensure his freedom when cornered or in danger of capture by the authorities. Worthy of a movie, or plaudits? I would say there are many more events, characters and unsung heroes far more deserved of book/celluloid immortality. The film is a fantasy in the true Hollywood/Walt Disney style, entertaining but complete fiction. Watch in the same manner as Blackadder Goes Forth!

Whatever the conditions of "The Bull Ring" and whatever reasons the men had for mutiny, Percy Toplis of monocle fame, small-time crook and impostor (and, finally, convicted murderer) wasn't in Etaples at the time. Whatever the reason for the misidentification, whether it was another Percy Toplis in the mutiny or what, using a historical figure who played no part in the action as the hero of the show undercuts its credence. This is not to say a movie about the mutiny might not be valuable, or there shouldn't be a movie about the fascinating career of Percy Toplis, but combining the two is inaccurate. Some good actors (Timothy West, Cherie Lunghi, and Paul McGann bringing to life the flamboyant Toplis) help make it worth watching, but if you ever get a chance to see it, remember it's a work of fiction.

The reason this drama has not been repeated is that after the first broadcast the BBC came under fire from the government and were banned from screening it again. This was due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, i.e. Percy Toplis and the mutiny at "The Bull Ring", a harsh British Army training ground in Etaples, France. There is a lot of mist around Percy Toplis who was finally tracked down and killed some years after the end of the war. No one truly knows the events that transpired at the Bull Ring for certain and we won't know until 2017 when the files on the event will finally be released. Until then all we have is this drama and i think there should be a demand that it should be broadcast again, some 18 years on.