The Monocled Mutineer - 2 - Before the Shambles (09-07-1986)

The four-part British miniseries The Monocled Mutineer related the true story of army private Percy Topliss, who during WWI rebelled against the cruelties imposed upon conscripts at the infamous Etaples training camp. After fomenting a mutiny on September 29, 1917, Topliss was forced to go on the lam, "hiding in plain sight" by successfully impersonating an Army captain. The chase ended not long after Topliss murdered a London cab driver in 1920. Busy TV and stage scrivener Alan Bleasdale was given the task of compressing Topliss' "career" into a single 95-minute episode and three 75-80 minute installments. The Monocled Mutineer was shown by BBC1 between August 31 and September 29, 1986




The reason this drama has not been repeated is that after the first broadcast the BBC came under fire from the government and were banned from screening it again. This was due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, i.e. Percy Toplis and the mutiny at "The Bull Ring", a harsh British Army training ground in Etaples, France. There is a lot of mist around Percy Toplis who was finally tracked down and killed some years after the end of the war. No one truly knows the events that transpired at the Bull Ring for certain and we won't
know until 2017 when the files on the event will finally be released.


Part 2."Before the Shambles" Sunday 7 September 1986
Percy Toplis arrives at the Etaples training camp in northern France, where the soldiers are put through a brutal training regime, under the command of Brigadier General Thomson. There is a mutiny of the troops.