The Wipers Times

Amidst the hubbub surrounding the centennial of World War I comes this amusing, endearing, and true comic snapshot. The Wipers Times was a satirical newspaper—perhaps the proto 'zine—written and published for British conscripts on the Western Front by a quick-witted squad of fellow soldiers from 1916 until the armistice two years later. After stumbling upon a printing press in the ruins of Ypres (known as “Wipers” to the uncultured doughboys) in Belgium, Captain Fred Roberts (Ben Chaplin) recruits a few lads as editorial staff and they begin cranking out gags, fake news, in-jokes, and jabs at officers as a morale booster for the entrenched inhabitants of no-man's-land. With its absurdist attitude (think National Lampoon or The Onion), The Wipers Times became a beloved, gallows-tinged comic relief valve, as well as a stick in the eye for some of the stuck-up brass. Chaplin shines as the dashing neophyte editor, backed by Julian Rhind-Tutt as Lt. Jack Pearson, his friend, adjutant and assistant editor, and Michael Palin as a General who gets the joke and keeps the upper class twits on his staff from shutting the publication down. Recommended. (T. Fry)