--- title: "The World at War" year: 1973 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-world-at-war" fi1m_score: 90 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-09-16T16:26:27.157831+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T16:26:51.592105+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The World at War (1973) Created by Peter Batty, Hugh Ragett, David Elstein, Ted Childs, Martin Smith, Michael Darlow · 1h 00m · MPA TV-PG · Documentary, War & Politics **Fi1m score: 90** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* The eyewitnesses finish speaking and we still need a minute > *The World at War* is absorbing, distressing television that deserves the time it asks for. Its archive footage and eyewitness accounts make the Second World War difficult to regard as a safely distant subject. ## Synopsis Narrator Laurence Olivier guides this 26-episode account of the Second World War, produced by Jeremy Isaacs and Martin Smith. Archive footage and eyewitness accounts provide its material, with personal stories taking precedence over a history organised solely around battles. The people who lived through the conflict describe their experiences, while the archive records the war they are remembering. The series brings those two kinds of evidence together, placing individual recollections within a wider account of the conflict. Each episode runs for an hour, allowing the history to unfold across a series rather than condensing it into a single film. ## Review We would recommend *The World at War* even to someone who usually avoids war documentaries. This 1973 series gives the Second World War 26 episodes, with producers Jeremy Isaacs and Martin Smith allowing individual experience to occupy much of that space. Battles are part of the subject, but the personal accounts give us a reason to keep listening. The length seems less forbidding once we stop expecting it to be dispatched in a few sittings. The eyewitness testimony is the strongest reason to watch. We were upset by these accounts, because hearing someone describe their own experience makes the suffering harder to file away as history. Listening takes an effort that a straightforward account of military events does not always require: we have to consider what living through those events meant. The series gives personal recollection enough room for that discomfort to settle, without requiring us to hurry towards the next battle. The archive footage benefits from that company. It is easy to become accustomed to images of war, especially when they arrive already labelled as history, and to look without paying much attention. Alongside the eyewitness accounts, the footage becomes harder to regard with that automatic recognition. We are watching records of events that people had to live through, and hearing recollections alongside them makes us less willing to settle for simply recognising what is on screen. Laurence Olivier’s narration is a substantial part of the effect. The authority of the voice suits the scale of the subject, though a voice this assured can encourage us to accept an account before we have thought about it. That is worth resisting, however much we admire the delivery. The eyewitness material helps: individual recollections require a different kind of attention from a narrator guiding us through the history. Martin Smith’s editing brings archive and testimony into an absorbing account, although the accumulation of detail can be demanding. Carl Davis’s music adds solemnity; we appreciate its weight, even when the people speaking scarcely need help to move us. These are important contributions to a programme that asks us to absorb so much. The arrangement of the material, and the gravity with which we hear it, encourage sustained attention rather than a quick survey of the subject. The density is also the reservation. Individual episodes run for 60 minutes, and there is a limit to how much detail we can hold before new information starts displacing what we have just heard. The series sometimes asks for more concentration than we can usefully give in one sitting. We would take breaks rather than treat endurance as proof that we are taking the subject seriously. For a war documentary, the emphasis on personal stories is a considerable virtue: military events remain connected to the people who experience them. We would not mistake even 26 episodes for the last word on the subject, and the commanding narration makes that caution worth keeping in mind. This is television worth making time for, with some quiet left afterwards. Give it an episode, then decide whether there is room for another. *Fi1m score 90, published 16 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (2) - **Empire**, William Thomas (90/100, inferred): The Blu-ray box set remains the ultimate World War II documentary. It combines astonishing archive footage with eyewitness accounts in hypnotic detail across its 26 episodes. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/world-war-review/) - **The Telegraph** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the 1970s series as one of the most profound historical documents of its time and TV's ultimate act of remembrance, highlighting its focus on personal stories over battles and its enduring impact. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2020/11/11/world-war-tvs-ultimate-act-remembrance/) ## Details - **Created by:** Peter Batty, Hugh Ragett, David Elstein, Ted Childs, Martin Smith, Michael Darlow - **Director:** Peter Batty, Hugh Ragett, David Elstein, Ted Childs, Martin Smith, Michael Darlow - **Editor:** Martin Smith - **Music:** Carl Davis - **Producer:** Jeremy Isaacs, Martin Smith - **Cast:** Laurence Olivier as Narrator - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-PG - **Release (the US):** 31 October 1973 - **Genres:** Documentary, War & Politics ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AT, DE, GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Shoah* (1985): Eyewitness testimony demands sustained attention, with little room for comfortable distance. - *The Sorrow and the Pity* (1969): Wartime recollections complicate the reassuring stories a country tells about itself. - *The Battle of Algiers* (1966), Fi1m 93: A dramatised conflict that keeps civilians painfully close to the fighting. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers.md) - *They Shall Not Grow Old* (2018): Restored wartime footage brings unfamiliar faces close, though the treatment invites questions. - *The Fog of War* (2003), Fi1m 84: One man’s recollections expose the limits of confidence in military judgement. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-fog-of-war.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-world-at-war