John Nichol announces first ever theatre tour
The Unknown Warrior
A personal journey of discovery and remembrance
Wednesday 9 October 2024, 7:30pm
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“It is rare to find a tale so strange, intimate and human yet at the same time so enormous, so global in its importance. Yet again John Nichol impresses us with his ability to weave together the little details and the grand narrative.” – Dan Snow, Historian
(Advance review of The Unknown Warrior – A Personal Journey of Discovery and Remembrance)
John Nichol, the former RAF Tornado Navigator, and Sunday Times best-selling author, will embark on his first ever theatre tour in 2024 with The Unknown Warrior – A Personal Journey of Discovery and Remembrance. Based on his forthcoming new book of the same name, published by Simon & Schuster on Thursday 26 September 2024 the tour will commence on Thursday 3 October and conclude on Thursday 7 November in the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday on 10 November.
Nichol hit the headlines in 1991 when his plane was shot down during the Iraq war and he and his pilot John Peters were taken captive, tortured, and paraded on TV. Since that fateful moment, John has established himself as a best-selling author with seventeen books to his credit, including Tornado Down, written with Peters, which described their ordeal as Prisoners of War.
The theatre tour, which will be a remarkable, fascinating, and highly emotive experience, and a must for fans of 20th Century and Military History, will see John Nichol take an emotional and personal journey, retracing the Unknown Warrior’s journey home from the battlefields of Northern France to Westminster Abbey to be buried ‘Among the Kings’. The grand state occasion culminated with a funeral at Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day, the 11 November 1920. Following the service an estimated 1,250,000 people visited the Abbey to see the grave in the week following the funeral.
The story and history of The Unknown Warrior will be brought to life with haunting visuals, and an arousing sound scape. Audiences will be taken back to that intense period of public sorrow and reflection, experiencing the fervour of those who have gone before us.
During the First World War (1914 – 1918) more than 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians killed. More than 1 million solders from the then British Empire lost their lives. Over a century later, around half of them still have no known grave.
The scale of the fighting, the destructive power of high explosive, and the combination of relentless military engagement and glutinous mud meant that many of the dead were never recovered or identified. Names were left without bodies, and bodies, or fragments of bodies, without names.
In the aftermath of the conflict, an idea was born for a single ‘Unknown Warrior’ to commemorate every single one of the missing and help staunch the tidal flow of national grief. Each phase of his central London burial ceremony was choreographed with military precision, love, and respect.
So how did the plan take shape? Who was this ‘unknown’ man? How was he chosen, and from where? What were the logistical challenges of repatriating a single body, whilst retaining its total anonymity?
To help shine light on the 100-year-old story, John retraces the Unknown Warrior’s journey home through conversations with relatives of those involved, research from long-forgotten archives and the insights of modern experts. And speaking to those who have recently lost loved ones in more modern conflicts, he meditates upon our continuing need for a tangible resting place at which to truly grieve the fallen. And as Remembrance Sunday approaches, he explores the way individuals and nations mark the sacrifice of the dead across the ages.
Drawing on Nichol’s own experience of combat and the death of colleagues, The Unknown Warrior is above all a search for the true meaning of camaraderie, sacrifice, and remembrance.
About John Nichol
John Nichol served in the Royal Air Force for fifteen years. On active duty during the first Gulf War in 1991, his Tornado bomber was shot down during a mission over Iraq. Captured, tortured, and held as a prisoner of war, John was paraded on television, provoking worldwide condemnation, and leaving one of the most enduring images of the conflict. John is the bestselling co-author of Tornado Down and author of many highly acclaimed epics, including Spitfire, Lancaster, and Tornado, all of which were Sunday Times bestsellers.
John’s latest bestseller Eject! Eject! tells the incredible story of the ejection seat in war and in peace – of the pioneers who risked everything during the early days of development in the 1940s and 50s of the designers who went head to head with the authorities in order to realise their vision, and of the extraordinary men and women who were given a second chance at life after facing disaster.
He has made several TV documentaries with Second World War veterans, written for national newspapers and magazines, and is a widely quoted commentator on military affairs.
About NLP Ltd
NLP Ltd, is one of the country’s leading independent production companies with over 20 years of producing and promoting work for the UK and international touring market. Specialising in the innovation of dramatizing children’s literature with a significant portfolio of work for young people, as well as, the development and production of touring theatre shows with well-known television personalities and authors, with over 600 performance dates a year. NLP Ltd produces live theatre that inspires and entertains, we believe that everyone should have access to and enjoy live theatre.
Posted on 24 August 2024 under General news, Theatre & Studio
