Underplayed Gems

The World at War (1973)

The World at War poster
Genre
documentary television program
Country
United Kingdom
Length
1 season, 26 episodes
Rated
TV-PG
Rating
8.3 of 10 from 182 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More series like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

This documentary series covers the events of the Second World War. It includes interviews with survivors and aides, and shows battles, the Holocaust, and civilian life.

informativesoberinghistoricalcomprehensivedetailedmeasurededucationalserious

What happens

The World at War is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War and aired between 31 October 1973 – 8 May 1974 on ITV. Produced by Thames Television in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, it took four years to make at a cost of around £880,000 (equivalent to £12,900,000 in 2025), making it the most expensive factual series ever made at the time. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Lord Olivier and included music composed by Carl Davis. A tie-in book of the same name was written by Mark Arnold-Forster and published in 1973. Hundreds of hours of interviews were filmed, primarily with surviving aides and assistants to prominent figures, soldiers, sailors, airmen, civilians, concentration camp inmates and other victims of the war. The episodes covered the 15 most prominent battles of the war, along with related topics such as the Holocaust, the political context and civilian experiences of the affected countries. So much footage went unused that Thames Television commissioned a further eight episodes of various lengths, which were narrated by Eric Porter and aired between 30 April 1975 – 18 August 1976. The World at War attracted widespread acclaim and now it is regarded as a landmark in British television history. In the British Film Institute's 2000 list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, The World at War placed 19th, the highest-placed documentary on the list. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.