Colour injected into war series

The series will include battle footage as well as social events

Colour footage of Queen Victoria's funeral and Lawrence of Arabia riding into Damascus is to be broadcast for the first time, it has been announced.

New technology has been used to inject colour into ancient film of World War I, which will be shown on Five, formerly Channel 5.

The broadcaster hopes it will make historical events more appealing to younger viewers.

It would "bring to life for a new generation some of the most important historical events of the 20th Century", Five chief executive Jane Lighting said.

World War I In Colour will be a six-part series of documentaries narrated by Kenneth Branagh and will show the battlefield and other events at that time.

The film was discovered 10 years ago in the vaults of the Imperial War Museum at RAF Duxford and was then made into a BBC Two documentary, Century of Warfare.

Footage of Emperor Franz Joseph is also included

But the technology has now been developed to allow viewers to see the events in more than black and white.

"We have been waiting for 10 years for colourisation technology to develop," said Philip Nugus, who made the original series.

"When you see Lawrence of Arabia, Moscow and St Petersburg in real-life colours, you just can't fail to be moved."

Viewers will also see footage of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, which led to war.

The series, which has been in the making for 13 months, begins on 23 July.