- [opening titles: introduction to each episode, over scenes of a "War Declared" newspaper headline; a platoon of soldiers whistling as they march to war; Mrs Kirkby and Stan Hobbs looking up and Tom and Julie running to the garden gate to watch them pass by]
- Voiceover: August 1914. The Great War. They said it would all be over by Christmas. But a year passed and the lanes of England still echoed to the tramp of marching feet. With each month, still more of England's manhood was drawn to the battlefields of France. Life at home would be difficult without them, and those left behind needed strength and courage. For the young, it was a time of great adventure - the adventure of filling their father's place in a nation stripped of men. One such adventurer was Tom Grattan... and this is his story.