Richard Fidler

For enjoyment.

I guess it was about making their lives more comfortable and more tolerable.

Marquise to set up cinemas.

Cinemas?

Yes.

What, in France?

In France, yes.

How was he showing movies in the trenches at that time?

Not in the trenches.

Right.

A battalion, roughly 1,000 men at full strength, would spend about a third of its time in the trenches, rotating through the front line, the second line and the reserve trenches.

For about a month they'd spend there and then two months would be out of the trenches, recovering, training, and they needed things to do and they needed ways of unwinding after the stress of the trenches.

And Dexter led the charge in creating cinemas behind the lines.

He'd go to Paris, buy equipment, buy films, come back, set them up.

And he would often pinch marquees from the YMCA.

He acquired timber from an engineering unit to build seats for the soldiers to watch Charlie Chaplin and relax.

How old was Mick when you met him to interview him?

He was just a few weeks off turning 100.

It was an extraordinary experience.

I mean, to meet the actual son of an Anzac soldier, an Anzac great, yeah, it's never happened to me before and I doubt it'll happen again.