In Their Footsteps

On the back of ANZAC Day we’ve been spoiled with quality documentaries about our military past lately.

The History Channel gave us Kapyong and The Digger, Seven aired Lost Diggers of Fromelles.

Now Nine begins a new 10-part series, In Their Foosteps, produced by Shine Australia. This one merges the past with the present as descendants re-trace the experiences of their ancestors who served during wartime.

It’s hard not to recall the excellent Who Do You Think You Are? franchise on SBS, and even ABC’s migrant ancestry series Family Footsteps. But the military angle gives this enough point of difference to look back upon our past.

In Their Footsteps fuses archival photos, footage (a lot of both) plus small doses of animation and the live-action scenes with the key subject.

In the first episode we meet Julie Bryce, great niece of sailor Tommy Johnson who served during the second world war when he joined the navy at age 18 in 1938.

Johnson was at sea upon the HMAS Perth when it came under attack in Indonesia. While hundreds of Australians drowned Johnson was one of the survivors. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese to work on the dreaded Thai-Burma Railway. And his trials didn’t end there.

Julie Bryce never knew her great uncle but her interest is piqued through a family photograph that sat on her father’s fridge. Through the Footsteps journey she embarks on a heartfelt path of storytelling and history.

“I just feel it was important to know exactly what he went through,” she explains.

Like WDYTYA? there is no host for this documentary, but a voice-over by Bryan Brown.

The earliest chapters are heavy with archival clips, painted in sepia, with songs, and narration. They are excellently resourced, and emphasise the youth of Johnson as a likeable lad in a bleak life experience.

Bryce meets a relative of one of Johnson’s closest mates, and looks through historic records that help personalise him. Each person she meets ends by telling her where she will travel next. One such destination will be the straits off Java where HMAS Perth sank (so it’s a little unclear why she’s arriving in Bangkok while we’re being told she’s headed to Java).

A military historian describes the battle off Java which is re-enacted through animation. For Bryce it is an emotional experience. There is even underwater footage of the remains of the ship. Impressive stuff.

She also visits the Thai-Burma Railway, where hundreds more men lost their lives working for the Japanese. Walking through vast rockfaces that were cleared with rudimentary tools is a dramatic sight. How Johnson survived this, indeed how any man did, is incomprehensible.

There are later experiences in the documentary that are best left for the television -there’s even an appearance by broadcaster Mike Carlton.

Executive Produced by Michael Caulfield (Australians at War) this is a handsomely-produced series and one of the best things Nine has done this year.

The format is devised from an idea by author Patrick Lindsay, who has written about many subjects including Kokoda, Gallipoli, Fromelles, diggers, Bali Bombing, biographies and worked within Nine on such shows as Today, Sunday, Wide World of Sports, Sports Sunday, and A Current Affair.

Scheduled against Dancing with the Stars it may have to compete for older viewers. Younger viewers may not connect with the abundant archival footage.

In Their Footsteps is a respectful reunion between the past, the present and our own wartime photo album.

In Their Footsteps airs 6:30pm Sunday on Nine.