Billed by its publicity campaign as “The Dig meets Saving Private Ryan”, this World War One drama is based on the real life story of the tunnellers who dug underneath German trenches to help win the war. Peaky Blinders favourite Sam Hazeldine stars alongside Tom Goodman-Hill (The Imitation Game), Kris Hitchens, Douglas Reith and Sam Clemmett.

We’re in France 1917, British troops are taking a hammering from the German enemy and it looks like things will only get worse. Armed with this new intelligence, officer John Norton-Griffith — known as Hellfire Jack — suggests a possible solution to his superiors. He aims to recruits chalk miners to dig under no man’s land, reaching enemy lines and blowing up the German trenches from below. Amongst the newly recruited group of men are William Hawkins (Hazeldine) a proud family man who wants to do his bit despite his own misgivings about the plan.

The bravery of the real men involved in this heroic act of valour aside, The War Below possesses none of the cinematic marvel of Sam Mendes’s 1917, nor does it measure up to the BAFTA-worthy performances in The Dig. Instead, first time writer/director JP Watts has given us a very formulaic war drama that is further let down by cringeworthy stiff-upper-lip dialogue and jarringly anachronistic language, which is one of my greatest bugbears.

There are a couple of decent performances, mainly courtesy of Hazeldine and the always brilliant Tom Goodman-Hill, but these are sadly and disappointingly overshadowed by some excruciating scenery-chewing turns from the rest of the cast.

Ultimately let down by its overly melodramatic tone, The War Below feels contrived, and rushed. Alas, its ambitions surpass its very low budget. History enthusiasts might unearth things in it they haven’t seen elsewhere, but the rest of us won’t find much to dig into.