The Village.

[patsyann]

Just a Query. Joe was shot on the Family farm.Surely that did not really happen to deserters?I would have expected it to be done in Barracks not in a public place.

[VHG]

Thanks for spoiling it for anyone who may not have watched it yet.

[craft1948]

To be honest VHG if you haven't watched it yet why look at the thread?

[DJHawkes]

i was going to watch it on catch up later. Still will do, but historically, if this is depicting real events, how could that have happened? Unless he tried to escape the custody of the redcaps

[andres]

Yes patsyann--He would have had to go in front of a firing squad at the army base. Be blindfolded and then shot . They would have had a few soldiers in the firing squad so that they would not know who he was actually killed by.

[Bbbananas]

He was shot at dawn for being a deserter, but not on the farm I didn't think?

[patsyann]

Sorry I did not mean to spoil it for anyone. But in the last but one episode Joe was taken away by the Red Caps and then there was the sound of gunshot. Final episode he was dead. The gunshots were heard on the farm.

[DJHawkes]

no i don't think the gunshots heard were necessarily part of the drama, they were used as dramatic effect and only us as the viewer will have been aware of the shot.

[patsyann]

OK. Thanks for all your replies.

[pips1]

but he wasn't a deserter was he? I thought he was suffering from the effects of the war, he joined up willingly at the beginning didn't he? I found it most confusing.

[patsyann]

yes you are right pips1 he went to war and came back with shell shock and afraid to go back into battle. But still the Red Caps came for him as a deserter poor lad.

[andres]

Joe was on leave but became very ill at home on the farm. Partly with shellshock but also the brutal treatment he had received in the army. Do you remember the coded letter that he arranged to send to Bert? Well apparently this was discovered and he was punished . He was tied up and left outside in the bitter cold overnight.Then he went on leave .He was on his way back to the at the end of his leave but collapsed in the field and had to be taken back home. He was too ill to go back and even with the doctor's saying he wasn't fit that's when he was declared a deserter.

[cecil39]

The lack of diologue I thought was confusing overall, but I must commend Nico Mirallegro on his portrayal of Joe, it was so distressingly realistic, I cried when they took that poor terrified boy away to be shot at dawn.