Stanley’s War dramatises stories of love and sacrifice, following the lives of Suffolk people during WW1. The film recounts the true life-changing experiences at the Western Front of Stanley Banyard, a farm hand from Ramsholt Suffolk, and how he saved the lives of his comrades, lost in No Man’s Land by using the skills he learnt as a boy from a Suffolk gamekeeper.
The film also follows the Pretty family, factory owners from Ipswich, and the forbidden romance between Major Frank Pretty, (4th Batallion, Suffolk Regiment) and Edith Dempster (later Edith Pretty of Sutton Hoo fame), as well as the tragic story of Lieutenant Donald Pretty (4th Batallion, Suffolk Regiment) killed in action on 11th May 1915.
Director
Tim Curtis
Writer
Jonathan Ruffle
The film is directed by Tim Curtis (Life on the Deben) and features mainly Suffolk cast and film crew. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Ruffle, creator of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Tommies’. Most of the rural drama scenes were shot on the Wilford Peninsula and, for authenticity, the battlefield scenes were shot at Trench Farm near Ipswich, where productions such as Journey’s End and Downton Abbey have filmed their own WW1 scenes.
