World War II · Series · 2019–2023
World on Fire
Ordinary lives across Europe are caught up in the first years of the war: a British translator and a Polish waitress in Warsaw, a Manchester factory girl and her pacifist father, an American journalist in Berlin and lovers in occupied Paris.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 8 places.
Stop 1: Warsaw
Harry Chase, a translator at the British embassy, falls for Kasia just before German bombs begin to fall on the city.
Stop 2: Manchester
Key location
Factory worker Lois and her father, a shell-shocked veteran of the Somme, face a new war while Harry's mother frets in her big house.
Stop 3: Berlin
American journalist Nancy Campbell fights the censors to report the truth, and a German family hides their epileptic daughter.
Stop 4: Off the River Plate
Lois's brother Tom, now in the Royal Navy, sees his first action against a German raider in the South Atlantic.
Stop 5: Dunkirk
Now a British Army officer, Harry leads his platoon through the retreat to the coast.
Stop 6: Paris
An American doctor and his jazz musician lover try to survive as German troops march into the city.
Stop 7: Manchester Blitz
Lois drives an ambulance through the burning city as the bombers reach Manchester.
Stop 8: Tobruk
Harry's platoon and an Indian sapper unit fight in the desert as Rommel's forces surround Tobruk.
What really happened
The first series runs from the summer of 1939 to July 1940 and weaves real events into its characters' lives: the German invasion of Poland and the siege of Warsaw, the Nazi killing of disabled people under the T4 programme, the Battle of the River Plate, the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain.
The second series covers October 1940 to May 1941, from the Manchester Blitz of December 1940 to Operation Compass and the siege of Tobruk in North Africa, the resistance in occupied France and the Lebensborn programme in Germany. The characters are fictional, and the BBC cancelled the series in February 2024 after two seasons.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- World on Fire
- Created by
- Peter Bowker
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English, Polish, German, French
- Seasons
- 2 seasons
- Released
- 2019–2023
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe, Eastern Front, Atlantic & Arctic, Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Home front
- Combat
- Resistance
- Romance
