Currently there are two shows on the ABC about Gallipoli and WW II and the contribution of the ANZACS.

Should such shows be as authentic as possible, particularly "The War That Changed Us (The Real Story Of Our ANZACs)"?

This production, advertised as "Education/Information", lists many academics in the credits and the footage is interspersed with their learned observations.

I watched a bit of ANZAC Girls the other night, it seems pretty authentic apart from the fact that nobody under seventy really speaks with an Australian accent anymore or uses the dialect.
There were still a lot of the old WWI guys about when I was a kid, I was a St Johns cadet and we marched and did first aid duty on ANZAC day so I interacted with them quite a bit and they'd always be referring to us as Cobber, Sprigger, little mate etc.
I realise this clip shows a very old man but it gives an idea of how they sounded, the accent actually reminds me of how some older Aboriginals speak:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxA-bgg3vGY

I'd find them more realistic if they didn't fall prey to the American habit of only using "pretty" actors, in real life the pretty people are the exception. If those nurses/soldiers had a majority of "large", pimple-struck, plain and or "ordinary" people with only the odd "pretty" amongst them then it would be realistic, otherwise it's just another unbelievable plastic production, to me anyway. It robs the portrayal of any verisimilitude, no matter how factual the dialogue or history.

Bruce,
I've looked up my great grandfather's service record, he was five foot six and weighed eighty kilos by his medical form. He died when my granny was a girl but I knew my great uncles and if he looked anything like his sons he would have been a prematurely bald, pot bellied, bow legged little character huffing and puffing his way up and down the tracks at Gallipoli.

speaks with an Australian accent anymore or uses the dialect.
Jay of Melbourne,
Even I as a Wog find it sad that the rather nice language of then is no longer used. I find so uplifting when I listen to the great English of the past. The colour of the then language is nothing short of marvellous.
Even when reading articles the quality of that language has suffered greatly. It's all just artificial nicety i.e. fawning & devoid of character. Old journals were written with such eloquence.

indi,
What I actually meant (but failed to express properly) was that the actors don't have authentic 1915 Australian accents, I mean neither do I but since we have recordings of how those people sounded they might have at least tried to act the part.