 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "The World at War" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| The World at War | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Jeremy Isaacs |
| Directed by | David Elstein |
| Narrated by | Laurence Olivier |
| Opening theme | The World at War Theme |
| Composer | Carl Davis |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Thames Television |
| Running time | 22 hours 32 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 31 October 1973 (1973-10-31) – 8 May 1974 (1974-05-08) |
The World at War is a 26-episode Britishdocumentary television series that chronicles the events of theSecond World War. Produced in 1973 at a cost of around £880,000 (equivalent to £13,400,000 in 2023), it was the most expensivefactual series ever made at the time.[1][2] It was produced byJeremy Isaacs,[3] narrated byLaurence Olivier and included music composed byCarl Davis.[4] The book,The World at War, published the same year, was written byMark Arnold-Forster to accompany the TV series.
The World at War attracted widespread acclaim and now it is regarded as a landmark in British television history.[5] The series focused on a portrayal of the experience of the conflict: of how life and death throughout the war years affected soldiers, sailors and airmen, civilians,concentration camp inmates and other victims of the war.[3][6]
Jeremy Isaacs had been inspired to look at the production of a long-form documentary series about theSecond World War following theBBC's broadcast of its seriesThe Great War in 1964. The BBC series, produced in collaboration with theImperial War Museum, featured a mix of contemporary film footage fromthe period and film recreations, which soured relations between the BBC and the Museum.[7] As a consequence, Isaacs was determined to have his programme be as authentic as possible.
The World at War was commissioned byThames Television in 1969. The government had halved its levy on television advertising revenue, with the proviso that the money which the independent television companies saved must be reinvested in programmes. Isaacs persuaded Thames to use the money to pay for the production of his Second World War documentary.[7] The series took four years to produce, at a cost of £900,000 (equivalent to £13,700,000 in 2023), a record for a British television series. It was first shown in 1973 onITV.
The series featured interviews with major members of theAllied andAxis campaigns, including witness accounts from civilians, enlisted men, officers and politicians. The interviewees includedSir Max Aitken,Joseph Lawton Collins,Mark Clark,Jock Colville,Karl Dönitz,James "Jimmy" Doolittle,Lawrence Durrell,Lord Eden of Avon,Mitsuo Fuchida,Adolf Galland,Minoru Genda,W. Averell Harriman, SirArthur Harris,Alger Hiss,Brian Horrocks,Traudl Junge,Toshikazu Kase,Curtis LeMay,Vera Lynn,Hasso von Manteuffel,Bill Mauldin,John J. McCloy,Lord Mountbatten of Burma, SirRichard O'Connor,J. B. Priestley,Saburo Sakai,Albert Speer,James Stewart,Charles Sweeney,Paul Tibbets,Walter Warlimont,Takeo Yoshikawa and historianStephen Ambrose.
In the programmeThe Making of "The World at War", included in the DVD set, Isaacs explains that priority was given to interviews with surviving aides and assistants rather than recognised figures. The most difficult person to locate and persuade to be interviewed wasHeinrich Himmler's adjutantKarl Wolff. During the interview, he admitted to witnessing a mass execution in Himmler's presence.[8] Isaacs later expressed satisfaction with the series's content, noting that if it had not been secret, he would have added references to British codebreaking atBletchley Park. In a list of the100 Greatest British Television Programmes which was compiled by theBritish Film Institute during 2000, voted for by industry professionals,The World at War ranked 19th, the highest-placed documentary on the list.
The series has twenty-six episodes. Isaacs askedNoble Frankland, director of the Imperial War Museum, to list fifteen main campaigns of the war and devoted one episode to each.[3] The remaining eleven episodes are devoted to other matters, such as the rise ofNazi Germany, home life in Britain and Germany, the experience ofoccupation of the Netherlands, andthe Holocaust. Episode one begins with acold open describing the massacre at the French village ofOradour-sur-Glane by theWaffen SS. The same event is referenced again at the end of Episode twenty-six, accompanied by the "Dona nobis pacem" (Latin for "Grant us peace") from theMissa Sancti Nicolai, composed byJoseph Haydn. The series ends with Laurence Olivier saying "Remember". For all but three episodes ("The Desert", "Home Fires", and "Remember"), the last scene of each episode either ended as a photograph or would be afreeze-frame shot of a film, and then change to a textured photograph before the credits roll. They would show the textured photograph only whenThe World at War logo appeared in both "The Desert" and "Home Fires" episodes. In the "Remember" episode, it would show the fire used during the title part as the credits roll before extinguishing itself at the end.[9]
| No. | Title | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "A New Germany (1933–1939)" | 31 October 1973 (1973-10-31) | |
The rebirth of Germany and growth in power of theNazi Party leading up to the outbreak of war. Interviewees includeKonrad Morgen,Hugh Greene,Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin,Werner Pusch [de],Christabel Bielenberg,Siegmund Weltlinger andEmmi Bonhoeffer. | |||
| 2 | "Distant War (September 1939 – May 1940)" | 7 November 1973 (1973-11-07) | |
Theinvasions of Poland, theWinter War, thesinking of theGraf Spee, the "phony war" andNorwegian Campaign and the elevation ofWinston Churchill toPrime Minister. Interviewees includeLord Boothby,Rab Butler,Bernard Kops,Lucy Faithfull,Lord Chandos, AdmiralCharles Woodhouse, SirMartin Lindsay and SirJohn "Jock" Colville. | |||
| 3 | "France Falls (May–June 1940)" | 14 November 1973 (1973-11-14) | |
French politics, theMaginot Line, theSaar Offensive,Blitzkrieg warfare and theNazi invasion of France and theLow Countries. Interviewees include GeneralHasso von Manteuffel, GeneralAndré Beaufre,Lawrence Durrell, GeneralSiegfried Westphal,Gordon Waterfield, GeneralWalter Warlimont and Major GeneralEdward Spears. | |||
| 4 | "Alone (May 1940 – May 1941)" | 21 November 1973 (1973-11-21) | |
TheBattle of Britain, defeats inGreece andCrete,Tobruk and life in Britain between theevacuation at Dunkirk andOperation Barbarossa. Interviewees includeLord Avon,J. B. Priestley, SirMax Aitken, Lieutenant GeneralAdolf Galland, Sir John "Jock" Colville,Robert Wright,Ray Holmes and a group of survivors ofThe Blitz. | |||
| 5 | "Barbarossa (June–December 1941)" | 28 November 1973 (1973-11-28) | |
After dominating southeastern Europe through force or intrigue, Germany beginsOperation Barbarossa, the invasion of theSoviet Union. Despite several quick victories, the invasion fails after theassault on Moscow in winter. Interviewees include GeneralWalter Warlimont,Albert Speer,Paul Schmidt,Grigori Tokaty,W. Averell Harriman and SirJohn Russell. | |||
| 6 | "Banzai!: Japan (1931–1942)" | 5 December 1973 (1973-12-05) | |
The rise of the Japanese Empire, theSino-Japanese War, theSoviet-Japanese border conflicts,Pearl Harbor and the early Japanese successes in theBattle of Malaya andBattle of Singapore. Interviewees includeKōichi Kido,Toshikazu Kase,Minoru Genda,Mitsuo Fuchida,Masatake Okumiya,Takeo Yoshikawa,John Smyth andIchiji Sugita. | |||
| 7 | "On Our Way: U.S.A. (1939–1942)" | 12 December 1973 (1973-12-12) | |
Theopposition by factions to the United States of America's entry into the war,Lend Lease,U-boat attacks on Atlantic convoys and American responses, the mobilisation of America after Pearl Harbor, theloss of the Philippines, theDoolittle Raid,Midway andGuadalcanal. Interviewees includeW. Averell Harriman,George Ball,Norman Corwin,Ken Galbraith,John J. McCloy,Edison Uno,Paul Samuelson,Isamu Noguchi,Jimmy Doolittle,Richard Tregaskis,Minoru Genda,Mitsuo Fuchida,J. Lawton Collins andVannevar Bush. | |||
| 8 | "The Desert: North Africa (1940–1943)" | 19 December 1973 (1973-12-19) | |
The Desert War, starting with Italy's invasion ofEgypt and the attacks and counterattacks between Germany and Italy and the Commonwealth forces, theAxis defeat atEl Alamein. Interviewees include GeneralRichard O'Connor, Major GeneralFrancis de Guingand,Siegfried Westphal, Field MarshalLord Harding andLawrence Durrell. | |||
| 9 | "Stalingrad (June 1942 – February 1943)" | 2 January 1974 (1974-01-02) | |
The mid-war German situation in Southern Russia resulting in the German defeat at theBattle of Stalingrad. This episode features only Olivier's narration and has no interviewees. | |||
| 10 | "Wolf Pack: U-Boats in the Atlantic (1939–1944)" | 9 January 1974 (1974-01-09) | |
Thesubmarine war emphasising theNorth Atlantic. Tracks the development of the convoy system and German submarine strategy. Interviewees include Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz,Otto Kretschmer, CaptainWilliam Eyton-Jones, CaptainGilbert Roberts, Vice Admiral SirPeter Gretton, Air Vice MarshalWilfrid Oulton,Peter-Erich Cremer andRaymond Hart. | |||
| 11 | "Red Star: The Soviet Union (1941–1943)" | 16 January 1974 (1974-01-16) | |
The rise of theRed Army, mobilisation of Soviet production, theSiege of Leningrad, theSoviet partisans and theBattle of Kursk. Interviewees include GeneralIvan Lyudnikov andIvan Chistyakov. | |||
| 12 | "Whirlwind: Bombing Germany (September 1939 – April 1944)" | 23 January 1974 (1974-01-23) | |
The development of British and Americanstrategic bombing. Interviewees includeMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris,Albert Speer, Brigadier-GeneralJames Stewart,Hamish Mahaddie,William Reid, GeneralLeon W. Johnson, GeneralCurtis LeMay,Wilhelm Herget,Werner Schröer, Lieutenant GeneralAdolf Galland and GeneralIra C. Eaker. | |||
| 13 | "Tough Old Gut: Italy (November 1942 – June 1944)" | 30 January 1974 (1974-01-30) | |
The difficulties of theItalian Campaign beginning withOperation Torch inNorth Africa, theinvasion of Sicily;Salerno,Anzio,Cassino and the capture ofRome. Interviewees include General SirKenneth Strong, GeneralMark Clark, Field MarshalLord Harding,Bill Mauldin,Wynford Vaughan-Thomas andSiegfried Westphal. | |||
| 14 | "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow: Burma (1942–1944)" | 6 February 1974 (1974-02-06) | |
The jungle war inBurma andIndia—what it "lacked in scale was made up in savagery". Interviewees includeMike Calvert, SirJohn Smyth andVera Lynn (the episode title is the name of one of her songs), andLord Mountbatten of Burma. | |||
| 15 | "Home Fires: Britain (1940–1944)" | 13 February 1974 (1974-02-13) | |
Life and politics in Britain from post-Battle of Britain to the firstV-1 attacks. Interviewees include Rab Butler,Lord Shinwell,Lord Chandos,Tom Driberg,Lord Avon,Michael Foot,Cecil Harmsworth King andJ. B. Priestley. | |||
| 16 | "Inside the Reich: Germany (1940–1944)" | 20 February 1974 (1974-02-20) | |
Changes in German society as the fortunes of war are reversed. Censorship and popular entertainment, German industry, the recruitment of female, foreign and slave labour, Allied bombing, German dissent—including the20 July plot, and the mobilisation of theVolkssturm towards war's end. Interviewees includeChristabel Bielenberg,Friedrich Luft,Albert Speer,Emmi Bonhoeffer,Otto John,Traudl Junge,Richard Schulze-Kossens, andOtto Ernst Remer. | |||
| 17 | "Morning (June–August 1944)" | 27 February 1974 (1974-02-27) | |
Operation Overlord starting with the failedDieppe Raid, followed by battles in theBocage, the Allied breakout andFalaise. Interviewees includeGoronwy Rees, Lord Mountbatten of Burma,Kay Summersby,James Stagg and Major GeneralJ. Lawton Collins. | |||
| 18 | "Occupation: Holland (1940–1944)" | 13 March 1974 (1974-03-13) | |
Life inthe Netherlands under German occupation, when citizens chose to resist, collaborate or remain passive. Interviewees includeGerben Wagenaar,Florentine Rost van Tonningen,Loe de Jong (who also served as adviser for this episode),Jetty Paerl andPrince Bernhard of the Netherlands. | |||
| 19 | "Pincers (August 1944 – March 1945)" | 20 March 1974 (1974-03-20) | |
Operation Dragoon, theliberation of Paris, the Allied occupation of France and the failure ofOperation Market Garden, theWarsaw Uprising, theBattle of the Bulge and thecrossing of the Rhine. In the East, theRomanian coup and the Soviet advance through Ukraine to East Prussia. Interviewees include Lieutenant GeneralBrian Horrocks,Wynford Vaughan Thomas, General SirKenneth Strong, GeneralHasso von Manteuffel, Major GeneralFrancis de Guingand,W. Averell Harriman, GeneralSiegfried Westphal and Major GeneralJ. Lawton Collins. | |||
| 20 | "Genocide (1941–1945)" | 27 March 1974 (1974-03-27) | |
Begins with the founding of theSS and follows the development of Nazi racial theory. It ends with the implementation of theFinal Solution. Interviewees includeKarl Wolff,Wilhelm Höttl,Rudolf Vrba,Primo Levi,Richard Böck,Lord Avon and Rivka Yosilevska. | |||
| 21 | "Nemesis: Germany (February–May 1945)" | 3 April 1974 (1974-04-03) | |
The invasion of Germany by the Allies, the bombing ofDresden, and the events in theFührerbunker during theBattle of Berlin. Interviewees includeAlbert Speer,Traudl Junge,Carola Stern,Elena Rzhevskaya,Heinz Linge,Eberhard Bethge, Major Anna Nikulina andFriedrich Luft. | |||
| 22 | "Japan (1941–1945)" | 10 April 1974 (1974-04-10) | |
Japanese society during wartime and how life is transformed as the country suffers defeats including theDoolittle raid,Midway,the death of Isoroku Yamamoto, theBattle of Saipan,Okinawa and the relentlessbombing of Japanese cities. Interviewees includeToshikazu Kase andNaoki Hoshino. | |||
| 23 | "Pacific (February 1942 – July 1945)" | 17 April 1974 (1974-04-17) | |
Battles on tiny islands in thePacific, aimed towards the Japanese heartland. Following thebombing of Darwin, the Japanese are turned back atKokoda,Tarawa,Peleliu, thePhilippines,Iwo Jima and finallyOkinawa. Interviewees includeButch Voris and Frank Manson. | |||
| 24 | "The Bomb (February–September 1945)" | 24 April 1974 (1974-04-24) | |
Theatomic bomb, the ascendency of PresidentHarry Truman, emerging splits in the Allies withJoseph Stalin, theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and theSoviet invasion of Manchuria, leading to thesurrender of Japan. Interviewees includeToshikazu Kase,Yoshio Kodama,Marquis Koichi Kido, Major GeneralCharles Sweeney, Brigadier GeneralPaul Tibbets,Alger Hiss,W. Averell Harriman,Lord Avon,McGeorge Bundy,John J. McCloy, GeneralCurtis LeMay,Hisatsune Sakomizu,Kiyoshi Tanimoto,Robert Oppenheimer (before his 1967 death), andJames F. Byrnes (before his 1972 death). | |||
| 25 | "Reckoning (April 1945)" | 1 May 1974 (1974-05-01) | |
Post-war Europe including the Alliedoccupation of Germany,demobilisation, theNuremberg Trials and the genesis of theCold War. The episode concludes with summations about the costs and consequences of the war. Interviewees includeCharles Bohlen,Stephen Ambrose,Kay Summersby,Lord Avon,W. Averell Harriman,Lord Mountbatten of Burma,Hartley Shawcross andNoble Frankland. | |||
| 26 | "Remember" | 8 May 1974 (1974-05-08) | |
How the war was experienced and remembered by its witnesses. Interviewees includeLawrence Durrell,J. Glenn Gray,Bill Mauldin,Wynford Vaughan-Thomas andNoble Frankland. | |||
The series was originally transmitted on the ITV network in Britain between 31 October 1973 and 8 May 1974, and has been shown around the world. It was first shown in the US insyndication on various stations in 1974.[10]WOR inNew York aired the series in the mid-1970s, although episodes were edited both for graphic content and to include sufficient commercial breaks.PBS stationWNET in New York broadcast the series unedited and in its entirety in 1982 as didWGBH in the late 1980s. TheDanish channelDR1 first broadcast the series from August 1976 to February 1977 and it was repeated onDR2 in December 2006 and January 2007. The History Channel inJapan began screening the series in its entirety in April 2007. It repeated the entire series again in August 2011. The Military History Channel in the UK broadcast the series over the weekend of 14 and 15 November 2009. The Military Channel (nowAmerican Heroes Channel) in the United States aired the series in January 2010, and has shown it regularly since.BBC2 in the UK transmitted a repeat run of the series starting on 5 September 1994 at teatime. In 2011, the British channelYesterday started a showing of the series and it has been shown continuously since.
The series was shown onSABC inSouth Africa in 1976, one of the first documentary series broadcast after the launch of the first television service in South Africa in January 1976, but the episode showing the Nazi holocaust was not shown.[11]
The series was shown in Australia in 1975[12] and has been shown on various TV stations at various times since then. It has also been shown on Australia's Pay TV Provider Foxtel in the early 2000s and a number of times since.[citation needed]
Each episode was 52 minutes excluding commercials; as was customary for hour-long ITV episodes at the time, it was originally screened with only one central break. On its original television broadcast in the UK the twentieth episode "Genocide (1941-1945)", which dealt with Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust, was shown uninterrupted without a commercial break due to the sensitive nature of its content .[citation needed]
So extensive was the amount of footage both shot and meticulously collected by Isaacs and his team that much went unused in the original 26-episode series. As a result, eight further documentaries were commissioned by Thames Television, ranging from 30 minutes to 100 minutes in length. The topics of these additional programmes include the theories and myths surrounding Hitler's death, the Auschwitz death camp, Germany under the rule of the Nazis, and a full interview with Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge. Due to Laurence Olivier being unavailable these additional documentaries were narrated instead by actorEric Porter. These were released as a bonus to the VHS version and have been included on all DVD and blu-ray sets of the series since.
The additional episodes and their original UK broadcast dates (where known) are:
Four further documentaries were created specially for home video releases, these are:
The series was released in various territories on VHS video as well as on 13Laservision long-play videodiscs by Video Garant Amsterdam.
In 2001–2005, DVD box sets were released in the UK and US. In 2010, the series was digitally restored and re-released on DVD and Blu-ray. In the latter case the image is cropped from itsoriginal 1.33:1 aspect ratio down to 1.78:1, to better fit modern widescreen televisions.[13] The restored series was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray in its original aspect ratio in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2016.[14]
The original bookThe World at War,[15] which accompanied the series, was written byMark Arnold-Forster in 1973. In October 2007,Ebury Press publishedThe World at War, a new book byRichard Holmes, an oral history of the Second World War drawn from the interviews conducted for the TV series.[16] The programme's producers shot hundreds of hours of interviews, but only a fraction of that recorded material was used for the final version of the series. A selection of the rest of this material was published in this book, which included interviews withAlbert Speer,Karl Wolff (Himmler's adjutant),Traudl Junge (Hitler's secretary),James Stewart (USAAF bomber pilot and Hollywood star),Anthony Eden,John Colville (Private Secretary toWinston Churchill),Averell Harriman (US Ambassador to theSoviet Union) andArthur"Bomber" Harris (Head ofRAF Bomber Command).[citation needed]
