BBC in biggest overseas operation to date to mark D-Day

LONDON – The BBC is gearing up for one of its biggest overseas broadcasts to date this Sunday, June 6, as it prepares for its live coverage of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings, to be attended by 10,000 veterans and world leaders.

The BBC will have a team of more than 180 people, including presenters, reporters and technical crew, 40 cameras and 40 technical vehicles, while approximately 50 miles of cable will be used to ensure the historic live television broadcast of all the processions, ceremonials and services of remembrance over the D-Day weekend.

The BBC has a series of programmes running over the weekend and has been backing its programming with a TV and poster campaign created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.

The ad, which focuses on the experiences of World War II veterans, is entitled "actors waiting in the wings of Europe" and features excerpts from an unfinished poem by Keith Douglas, a tank commander who was killed the day after the landings on June 7.

The spot opens with a camera closing in on an elderly man standing on a windswept beach as he starts to recite the words from the poem, switching each line to another veteran: "Actors waiting in the wings of Europe, we already watch the lights on the stage, and listen to the colossal overture begin".

The BBC will broadcast more than 25 hours of dedicated coverage on television and radio, including live events, which will see the war-time allies represented by Tony Blair, George Bush, Francois Mitterand and Vladimir Putin, alongside Gerhard Schroder, representing Germany in Normandy for the first time since the war.

The BBC broadcast is the result of two years of planning and negotiation with the MoD, the British Embassy and the French authorities.

'News at Ten' anchor Huw Edwards will lead the coverage of events on BBC One from a specially built studio looking over the landing beaches at Normandy, where British troops came ashore 60 years ago on Gold and Sword beaches.

According to Edwards: "It is quite simply a great honour to be asked to anchor the BBC's coverage of the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

"D-Day was the turning point of the Second World War: it was a stunning success and it's right that we remember the achievement of so many. We'll be telling the remarkable story of the greatest armada ever seen."

James Naughtie and Martha Kearney will be provide further commentary and presenters Darren Jordan and Dick Strawbridge will talk to some of the veterans, many of whom are making their last pilgrimage to France to mark the historic occasion.

On Radio 4 Nicholas Witchell will present coverage of the Service of Remembrance at Bayeux.

Nick Vaughan-Barratt, creative director of events at the BBC, said: "As we make our final preparations for the broadcast, there is a really special atmosphere here in Northern France.

"Already, I can sense that this will be a hugely moving and emotional experience for us all."

As well as full coverage of the live events, the BBC will be showing a wide range of special D-Day programmes.

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