Stage play
The book was adapted into a play of the same name by Simon Reade, first performed at the Bristol Old Vic in April 2004 starring Alexander Campbell. The play was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London's West End, and toured the United Kingdom.[20][21] Reade said he was inspired to adapt Morpurgo's book into a play after hearing an interview with Morpurgo on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. The play is a one-man production, consisting of just the actor and a bed on the stage, with a dramatic monologue to create a world around the character.[22][21] Whilst in Morpurgo's novel it is Charlie Peaceful (Tommo's brother) who is shot for cowardice at the end of the story, Reade changed this in his stage play and Tommo himself is shot by the firing squad.[20] Both the book and the adaptation of Private Peaceful helped the campaign to grant posthumous pardons to men executed during the war.[22] At a 2012 production of the play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, 306 names of men who were shot for cowardice, desertion and other related crimes were listed on the back of the programme.[23]
A gender-flipped version of Reade's play was performed at The Barn in Cirencester in 2020. It was directed by Alexander Knott and Emily Costello played the part of Tommo. Dominic Cavendish of The Telegraph wrote that "Costello evokes a sturdy boyishness while eschewing male-impersonation – emblemising a spirit of youthfulness and hopefulness".[24]
Radio play
A radio dramatisation of Private Peaceful, adapted by Simon Reade and directed and produced by Susan Roberts, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2012. It was recorded in Iddesleigh in Devon, where the story is set. It starred Paul Chequer as Tommo, Nicholas Lyndhurst as Sergeant Hanley, and Michael Morpurgo as the vicar.[25][26] It features music by Coope Boyes and Simpson.[27] An abridged version of the radio adaptation was created for use in schools.[28]
Concert
Private Peaceful: The Concert featured readings from the book and music from folk trio Coope Boyes and Simpson.Morpurgo first met the folk trio Coope Boyes and Simpson whilst they were in Belgium, where the trio had become popular through their appearances at Passchendaele peace concerts. Morpurgo was inspired by their music and worked with them to create a Private Peaceful concert, combining readings from Private Peaceful with songs from Coope Boyes and Simpson.[29] In 2006, a live recording of the concert was released called Private Peaceful: The Concert. The featured folk songs include some specifically about war, such as "The Sergeant's Having a Very Good Time" and "Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire", and other songs which are not about war, including "Hares on the Mountain" and "Oranges and Lemons".[30]
Film
A feature film version of Private Peaceful, directed by Pat O'Connor with a screenplay by Simon Reade, was released in October 2012. It starred George MacKay as Tommo and Jack O'Connell as Charlie.[31] In reviews of the film, comparisons were drawn to Steven Spielberg's War Horse—another adaptation of one of Morpurgo's novels.[32][33] Like in the book, the film does not make it clear which of the Peaceful brothers is going to be executed at the end of the story.[34] It deviates from the book in that Tommo goes to the Front before Charlie, who resists the war due to political reasons and not wanting to leave behind his pregnant wife. Simon Reade said this was a deliberate decision to create a rift between the brothers.[22] Kate Stables of the magazine Sight & Sound described the film as "a small and intimate affair",[34] and Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that it was "a small-scale story in essence, which works efficiently on the non-epic in which it's presented".[32] Robbie Collin of The Telegraph wrote that the film was "warfare and poverty recast as snug escapism".[33]
