You can rely on the BBC to explore the human drama in its Great War centenary.

Sacrifices on the front line and the hardships and heartaches of those on the Home Front are the focus of the Beeb’s programming.

And you can bet there is more emotion played out than in any soap. Tomorrow, a new series plunders the drama of first-hand information with Great War Diaries – first episode at 6.10pm on BBC2. The three episodes are based on the letters and journals of those who lived through the tragedy, love, happiness, pain and grief of war. In the first episode, a Scottish nurse accompanies the British Army to Belgium, a young Cossack girl follows her father into battle and a German woman endures the sudden death of her only son. We also get close to a French boy witnessing his country under occupation and a German schoolgirl is forbidden from using French words in class.

And, if you like your war stories with a healthy dose of forbidden romance, catch the replay of Birdsong, the adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ novel. Adapted for BBC television in 2012, and starring the lip-tremblingly beautiful couple Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Poesy, the drama tells the story of two lovers drawn together and then torn apart by the Great War, which really brings the drama home. With echoes of several war poets such as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, this is an epic viewing, being screened at 9am tomorrow on Yesterday channel and followed there by The Last Day of WWI examining the deaths of soldiers after the armistice was signed in 1918.

On Monday, there is something comforting about tuning into BBC2 for the official centenary coverage, which is in good hands with Huw Edwards in London and Sophie Raworth in Belgium and Dan Snow in St Symphorien military cemetery near Mons, where British, Commonwealth and German soldiers are buried side by side.

World War One Remembered from the Battlefield at 6.30pm starts off on a happy yet poignant note with Gareth Malone leading a children’s choir singing their own specially written song, and the aforementioned Redmayne and serving British and German soldiers reading poems and testimonies. Then London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic will unite under the baton of conductor Simon Rattle, performing the last movement of Brahms’ German Requiem and Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, which, you can rest assured, will have tears flowing.

From 9pm on BBC2 Monday, it’s World War One Remembered from Westminster Abbey for the candlelit service to mark the moment the war began 100 years ago. The abbey will gradually descend into darkness until only a single candle at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior will flicker. The flame will be extinguished at 11pm – the exact time Great Britain declared war on Germany. The programme also joins communities across the UK as the nation comes together for an hour of reflection.

Tasteful and moving: big events like this show why the BBC leads the world. So much engaging programming is lined up for the next four years that there is too much to mention, but visiting bbc.co.uk/history/0/ww1 will show the myriad angles programme-makers have taken to explore how the war changed our world. A series of wonderful 12-minute films shine light on various riveting aspects of the conflict, from the impact of multi-racial soldiers from all over the Empire fighting for the same cause and even A Tommy's Sex Life, starring Thomas Gray, which is a cheeky yet compassionate look at how the brothels and their staff in northern France provided a sanctioned and, in many ways, essential service to troops amid the nightmares of conflict.

Over on Channel 4 oD is War Horse – The Real Story. Forget the Spielberg film, this programme explores the truth about the million British horses that served in the Great War, beginning with the mass call-up of horses from every farm and country estate in the land, with many stories close to home. Animal-lovers will be fixated to hear how a quarter of a million of these horses died from shrapnel wounds and diseases, with heartrending accounts showing the deep bond between man and horse which helped both survive the hell of the Somme and Passchendaele.

And, just to prove everyone is catered for, a special 40-minute episode of Horrible Histories will be screened at 5.30pm on Monday. Frightful First World War goes straight for what the kids want - AKA stories of soldiers weeing on machine guns to cool them down (and leather boots to soften them).

Human drama that makes the action feel very familiar, even a century on.

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