The World at War
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The World at War was a 1974 television documentary series on the Second World War, the events that led up to it, and those that followed in its wake. The series was produced by Jeremy Isaacs for Thames Television.
The series interviewed leading members of the Allied and Axis campaigns, including eyewitness accounts by civilians, enlisted men, officers, and politicians, among them Albert Speer, Karl Dönitz, Jimmy Stewart, Bill Mauldin, Curtis LeMay, Lord Mountbatten, Alger Hiss, Paul Tibbets, Anthony Eden, and historian Stephen Ambrose. It is often viewed as the definitive television history of the Second World War. However, at the time of its production many aspects of the war remained secret, such as the code-breaking activities at Bletchley Park.
In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The World at War was placed 19th.
The series was narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. The score was written by Carl Davis.
The episodes
The series had 26 episodes. Producer Jeremy Isaacs asked a historian to list fifteen key campaigns of the war and devoted one episode to each. The remaining eleven episodes were devoted to other issues such as home life in Britain and Germany, the experience of occupation in The Netherlands, and the Nazis' use of genocide.
The episodes were:
- A New Germany (1933–1939)
- Distant War (September 1939–May 1940)
- France Falls (May–June 1940)
- Alone in Britain (May 1940–June 1941)
- Barbarossa (June–December 1941)
- Banzai: Japan Strikes (1931–1942)
- On our Way: America Enters the War (1939–1942)
- Desert: The War in North Africa (1940–1943)
- Stalingrad (June 1942–February 1943)
- Wolfpack: U-Boats in the North Atlantic (1939–1943)
- Red Star: The Soviet Union (1941–1943)
- Whirlwind: Bombing Germany (September 1939–April 1944)
- Tough Old Gut: Italy
- It's a lovely day tomorrow: Burma (1942–1943)
- Home Fires: Britain (1940–1944)
- Inside the Reich: Germany (1940–1944)
- Morning: Normandy Invasion (June–August 1944)
- Occupation: Holland (1940–1944)
- Pincers (August 1944–March 1945)
- Genocide (1941–1945)
- Nemesis (February–May 1945)
- Japan (1941–1945)
- Pacific - The Island to Island War (February 1942–July 1945)
- The Atomic Bomb (February–September 1945)
- Reckoning (April 1945)
- Remember
The series was originally transmitted on the ITV network in the United Kingdom between 31 October 1973 and 8 May 1974. It has subsequently been shown around the world; the most recent repeat showings in the UK have been on BBC Two.
Each episode was 52 minutes excluding commercials; in the UK it was screened with only one central break.
Additional episodes
Some footage and interviews that were not used in the original series were later made into additional hour or half-hour documentaries narrated by Eric Porter. These are included in the DVD set of the series.
- The Making of The World at War
- Secretary to Hitler
- Who won World War Two?
- Warrior
- Hitler's Germany - Part One (1933 - 1939)
- Hitler's Germany - Part Two (1939 - 1945)
- The two deaths of Adolf Hitler
- The Final Solution: Auschwitz - Part One
- The Final Solution: Auschwitz - Part Two
- From War To Peace