Female cadets at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst hit back at sexist trolls
What's it like when one of the most interesting films you've ever worked on gets attacked by online trolls?
Well, it's hurtful, of course, but not half as hurtful as it is for the people who put their faith in you and agree to open up on-screen.
So when BFBS Forces News spent four months following young women taking on the gruelling Army officer training course at Sandhurst, candidly discussing their experiences, it was very tough to watch the negative comments come rolling in on social media.
Of course, there were many positive responses, but when you're the focus of the discussion, your eyes are inevitably drawn to the critics.
Having spent many years reporting on the Armed Forces and covered my fair share of stories on servicewomen, loud negative voices reacting to a female-centric story was sadly not news.
So for our final episode, we decided to do things differently and to give these women a platform to respond.
With BFBS Forces News cameras invited back to the academy once more to capture the last phase of the year-long course, we followed the Officer Cadets out to Germany for their final exercise – the last time they would get to command troops in training before doing it for real.
We spent time on the drill square as they were put through their paces, taking centre stage at the glittering Sovereign's Parade in front of the world's press.
But we also asked them directly what it felt like to be personally criticised for stepping up to defend their country at one of the most dangerous times in recent history while being female.
Officer Cadet Dent told BFBS Forces News: "Yeah, I think the comments were a lot. I think people, you know, don't think about what they write.
"And if they do think about what they write, then they're very cruel because they don't realise the impact that has."
For Officer Cadet McCullough a decision not to read any of the comments was harder to stick to than she'd thought.
"But then you can't, your curiosity is there. You want to read them," she explained.
"You want to see what people are saying. …. there was a lot of comments about lowering the standards.
"To make it clear, no standards have been lowered. Males and females meet the exact same standards across the Army, not just at Sandhurst."
And tellingly, Officer Cadet Finch, one of the male cadets who was part of the mixed platoon we focused on, offered a staunch defence of his comrades.
"That's the part which frustrates me much more because I know that... my female peers can hold their own better than most," he said.
"It's when people have got absolutely no idea on their background of their performance, see them get a prize and immediately go 'oh, well, it's because she's a woman'."
The women we followed throughout training are strong, highly capable and deeply stoic: people who rarely complain about anything, let alone about faceless social media critics.
But in an online world which so often seeks to diminish female ability and achievement, this project felt like an important moment to give them a voice.
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