Pals to me was the best the best episode in the Our World War series. As the war went on, recruiting drives needed to offer encouragement to get young men to join up. The Pals were specially constituted battalions of the British Army comprising men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives, with the promise that they would be able to serve alongside their friends, neighbours and colleagues.
This story focuses on the Manchester Pals who were all working in an office in Manchester. Paddy Kennedy (Luke Tittensor) has been nominated to be part of the firing squad to kill his fellow pal who has been accused of desertion but who claims he got lost.
The drama is framed with Kennedy talking to Father Brookes (Stuart Graham) the night before the execution with flashbacks at to how these Pals joined the army and their time in training and then in battle. Kennedy himself got lost in battle and wound up with another regiment, who gave him a letter to explain what he was up to once he returned to his own regiment.
Father Brookes is the flip side of the priest with a friendly ear. He stands his ground and gives the army's point of view. You cannot have soldiers leaving the battle field and then claiming they were lost for example. It can be a terse war off words between the two.
At the end of the episode we hear the actual words of Paddy Kennedy recorded in 1976. In 2006 306 soldiers shot for desertion were posthumously pardoned.