The World At War
One of the most respected and famous documentaries produced for UK television is the World at War series. The 26 episodes covering World War II originally ran from October 1973 until May 1974. Since that time, the series has aired all over the world and has been repeated many times. The production values were high and it took four years to make. A book of the same name was published to accompany the series.
The production is still considered to be the best of its kind. The mix of footage, much of it rare and in color, and interviews with key figures and the people close to them brought the conflict to vivid life. The story was told in detail from both the Allied and Axis perspectives and there were eyewitness accounts. Enlisted men, officers, civilians and politicians were interviewed, building up a picture of the cause of the war, its events and subsequent consequences. Nazi official Albert Speer and British admiral, Lord Mountbatten were amongst the interviewees. Others included the author, Lawrence Durrell, actor and Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart, pilot of the Enola Gay, Paul Tibbets, and historian and author of Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose.
Noble Frankland, who was director of London’s Imperial War Museum at the time, advised on how the episodes should be divided. Britain’s most admired actor, Lawrence Olivier was chosen as narrator for the series and Carl Davis composed a stirring score. The World at War had a difficult task of presenting six years of conflict in a cohesive way and it did it admirably. The first episode concerned itself with the rise of the Nazi Party from 1933. Throughout the series, the landmark events and battles were explained. These included the invasions of Poland and Norway, the Fall of France, and the Battle of Britain, which was the battle in the skies over Britain between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe. The World at War also showed the Dunkirk evacuation, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the North African desert campaign, and fighting on the Russian front including the Battle of Stalingrad.
The last few episodes of the World at War covered the jungle war against the Japanese soldiers in Burma, the D-Day Normandy invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, the Final Solution and genocide, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and the post-war conditions of Europe and the Allied occupation of Germany. The series was not all about battles but also looked at life at home in Britain and Germany. Finally, the World at War explored how the war shaped Europe throughout the rest of the century. The series is available as a DVD box set with extra footage and interviews that were not shown in the original broadcast.