LEARNERS from The University of Northampton were in fine voice when they spoke up for a new television show.
The BA Acting students voice characters in the two-part BBC dramatization of Sebastian Faulks' First World War novel Birdsong which premiered at the weekend.
The second part will be shown on Sunday.
Eddie Redmayne (My Week With Marilyn, Richard II) and Clemence
Poesy (28 days Later, Harry Potter) star as passionate young lovers brought together by love and torn apart by war.
Working Title, the independent production company commissioned to make the drama, approached the university last year for help because although the story is about British soldiers, filming took place on the continent and voices in many of the crowd scenes were not British.
The students were delighted to help and their work included improvising and creating
the ‘soundscape’ in crowd scenes of young British soldiers throughout the programme.
Birdsong was adapted by Bafta award-winning Abi Morgan and spans the decade of the First World War.
It tells the story of Stephen Wraysford, a young Englishman who, in 1910, arrives in Amiens, Northern France, to stay with the Azaire family and falls desperately in love with Isabelle.
Ian Wilkinson, of Working Title, said: “A lot of the material we recorded at the university has been used and the director was very happy with the results.
“Over the two episodes you should be listening out for any scenes that involve the British soldiers.
“In episode one it is primarily the scenes in the trenches, but in episode two we have used far more for the soldiers milling around, street scenes in Amiens, the bar in Amiens, wounded soldiers, and the Battle of the Somme.”
Ashley Cook, a year one acting student, said: “The experience was fantastic because even though we are still training we have had the opportunity to work on something that is clearly a big production.”
