Must-watchWorld War II · Series · 1973–1974
The World at War
Across 26 episodes narrated by Laurence Olivier, the whole Second World War is told through archive film and the testimony of those who lived it, from Hitler's rise to the atomic bomb.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 8 places.
Stop 1: Berlin
The series traces how Hitler took power and rearmed Germany in the years before the invasion of Poland.
Stop 2: London
Key location
Britain stands alone after the fall of France, through the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
Stop 3: North Atlantic
Convoy sailors and U-boat men recall the long battle for the sea lanes that kept Britain alive.
Stop 4: Pearl Harbor
Japan's road to war ends in the surprise attack that brings the United States into the conflict.
Stop 5: Stalingrad
Soviet and German veterans describe the battle for the city on the Volga and the encirclement of the 6th Army.
Stop 6: Auschwitz
Survivors and perpetrators speak about the Nazi plan to murder Europe's Jews.
Stop 7: Oradour-sur-Glane
The series opens and closes in the ruins of a French village destroyed in a single afternoon.
Stop 8: Hiroshima
The war in the Pacific ends with the first use of atomic weapons.
What really happened
Produced by Jeremy Isaacs for Thames Television with the Imperial War Museum and broadcast on ITV from October 1973 to May 1974, the series took four years and about £880,000 to make, then the most expensive factual series ever produced. Its episodes cover the main campaigns in Europe, the Atlantic, North Africa, the Soviet Union and the Pacific, as well as the home fronts and the Holocaust.
Its makers prioritised interviews with surviving witnesses, from soldiers, sailors and civilians to camp survivors and figures such as Karl Dönitz, Adolf Galland, Mitsuo Fuchida and Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge, many of whom have since died. Carl Davis composed the score, and the series opens and closes in the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- The World at War
- Created by
- Jeremy Isaacs
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Released
- 1973–1974
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe, Eastern Front, Atlantic & Arctic, Mediterranean & Africa, Pacific, China & Southeast Asia
- Themes
- Documentary
