TV preview - Britain's Poppies: The First World War Remembered

“I went to see the installation at the Tower of London and there were as many poppies in the moat as there were people had been killed in the First World War for the British,” says Colin Lewis, whose father Sidney fought in the Great War aged just 12.

“It was a very emotional moment, and I think it brought home to people how much sacrifice the country made by losing all those young men and women in that terrible battle.”

This new one-off documentary for ITV marks the centenary of the end of the First World War by following the four-year journey of more than 800,000 ceramic poppies first installed at the Tower of London in 2014.

Called The Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, this tribute to the British and colonial lives lost during the 1914-18 war captured the public’s imagination as it formed a “moat” around the tower and became a visitor attraction.

This documentary, narrated by Sean Bean, follows the journey of the poppies as the Wave and Weeping Window segments from the tower went on tour around the UK.

It uses archive footage and new interviews with historians and those whose relatives went to war to tell the story of the brave souls who fought and often paid the ultimate price.

Britain’s Poppies: The First World War Remembered, ITV, Sunday, 9.30pm