17 April 1917 - Ralph Winwood (Season 10 start)

Home Front

On this day in 1917, newspapers reported that food prices had risen 94% since the start of the war, and Ralph Winwood returns from France to a Folkestone he doesn't recognise.

Written by Shaun McKenna Directed by Allegra McIlroy Sound: Martha Littlehailes Editor: Jessica Dromgoole

NOTES HOME FRONT SEASON 10: OUR DAILY BREAD

Season Ten has as its theme the Church and Class. By April 1917, food shortages were becoming a focus of Great War Britain. In Berlin, the day before our season opens, there were food riots and strikes in protest against food rationing. Meanwhile in Britain, discussions were beginning about voluntary rationing for the upper classes, and the working classes struggled to afford what food there was.

Nearly three years into the war, with no prospect of peace on the horizon, and many, many families touched by loss and grief, the desire to memorialise the fallen took hold, and the debate about intercessionary prayers (i.e. for the dead) raged. Just after the season's close, the Archbishop of Canterbury controversially included an intercessionary prayer in his new prayer book.

Out of nowhere, on 25 May 1917, a fleet of Gothas attacked the South coast of Britain, specifically Folkestone, in the first ever air raid on Britain, causing the greatest number of civilian casualties of the war to date.

A special edition of Home Front: A LIGHTENING, written by Sarah Daniels and directed by Jessica Dromgoole, was broadcast as Radio 4's Afternoon Drama on 25 May 2017 to mark this anniversary.

Season 10 of Home Front is story-led by Sarah Daniels (THE CAZALETS, EATING FOR ENGLAND), and written by Shaun McKenna (THE FORSYTES), Sebastian Baczkiewicz (PILGRIM, MR RAINBOW), and Katie Hims (LOST PROPERTY, BLACK DOG).