A special boxed set DVD edition of The World at War, the 1973 landmark documentary series is being re-released in the UK with hours of unseen footage not included in the original broadcast. The series was acclaimed as the most definitive documenatary about the greatest conflict of the 20th century - at least until Ken Burns' recently telecast The War. The series is based on the best-selling book by Richard Holmes. In the ensuing years, the series plays even better - and it's needed now more than ever. As school systems in Western nations inexplicably decline to stress the history of the war, young people are shockingly ignorant of the facts. A recent poll of American students found that a majority of them thought the USA fought with Germany against the Russians! The series is impeccably narrated by Lord Laurence Olivier and is presented on DVD by Ebury Press with a slew of extras that are as imposing as a Sherman tank. The boxed set includes:
- All 26 episodes of The World at War as originally telecast
- a three hour special including rare out-takes and interviews with the production team
- maps, songs, biographies and much more
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“The World at War was one of the greatest television series of all time. It demonstrated the potential power of
history on television and inspired a generation - it certainly inspired me to
make series like Nazis and Auschwitz. It is tremendously exciting
that the complete interviews with the participants from The World at War are now published here
for the first time.  Most of the people
who were interviewed for the series are now dead, but their vital history -
thanks to this book - still livesâ€
Laurence Rees, author of Auschwitz
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RICHARD HOLMES
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THE WORLD
AT WAR
THE LANDMARK ORAL HISTORY
FROM THE PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED
ARCHIVES
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Foreword by Sir Jeremy Isaacs
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Published by Ebury Press on 4th October 2007,
£25
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First broadcast in
1973, The World at War is the
definitive television work about the Second World War. Â Produced by Sir Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by
Laurence Olivier and unforgettably scored by Carl Davis, this epic series
redefined the gold standard for television documentary. Originally broadcast as
26 one-hour programmes, The World at War
set out to tell the story of the Second World War through the testimony of the
men and women who ‘fought, worked or watched’. The result was a unique and
unrepeatable event.
Programme producer,
Thames Television, committed hundreds of interview-hours to film during the
series’ creation. But only a tiny fraction of that recorded material made it to
the final cut. For the last 30 years, the interview tapes have rested in the Imperial War Museum
sound archive and, for legal reasons, have always been marked 'For Educational
Use Only'. These hugely valuable
recordings have never been widely heard or published in any way. Until now.
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The World at War: The Landmark Oral History from the Previously
Unpublished Archives
brings all of this material together in a truly phenomenal oral history. From the freezing waters of the North
Atlantic through the sands of the Western Dessert to the jungles of Burma,
respected historian Richard Holmes has drawn together accounts to tell the
story of the Second World War from background to legacy. With an unprecedented range of interviewees,
many of whom are no longer with us, this collection captures not only the words
of captains and kings but also ordinary men and women – American, British and
their allies – reliving the extraordinary times they lived through. Alongside the frank testimonies of, amongst
others, John Colville, Churchill’s private secretary, Albert Speer, Primo Levi,
Dame Vera Lynn, Arthur Harris of the RAF’s bomber command and Sir Antony Eden,
are the accounts of a mother describing the death of her children, a rescue
worker who held a teenage girl’s hand as she choked to death and a merchant
navy officer cataloguing the deaths of his crew in an open boat in the Atlantic.Â
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“When I was first invited to edit
the archive of interview transcripts compiled when the series was made, there
was a real sense of excitement and discovery as the door to the filing cabinet
grunted open. It was immediately clear,
as I flicked through the files, that there was far, far more material than was
ever aired…I suspect that only about 10% of the interview material was ever
broadcast.â€
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Containing a huge
number of previously unheard accounts, these raw and immediate testimonies
really do offer a fresh insight into the Second World War. Some reveal facts we thought we knew to be
falsehoods, others confirm what had previously been written off as myths and
some nuggets establish intriguing, counter-intuitive lines of argument. Whilst many add significantly to our factual
knowledge, the value of the anthology is also in its impressionistic quality –
offering a uniquely personal, intimate account of such an inhuman conflict.Â
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Unparalleled in both scope
and source material, and blending ground-breaking new facts with the most
moving tales of personal suffering, tragedy and bravery, The World at War truly is a landmark publishing event.
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“My abiding memory of a project
which has claimed the best part of a year of my working life is of the sheer
scale of The World at War and its triumphant and enduring success. I doubt if we shall even see something of
this epic dimension carried off with such panache again….In a small way this
series has changed the way that I personally looked at history, and in a
broader sense it changed television’s relationship with the past. These transcripts, lying in the dusty
darkness for half my lifetime, have something fresh to say about this war which
shaped the world I grew up in, and whose long shadow, even now, is only
beginning to recede.â€
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'Holmes has a
sharp, knowing eye for anecdote and detail'
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
Â
'What sets Richard
Holmes apart is the sheer quality of
his writing and his
empathy with his subjects'
Independent
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One of Britain's most distinguished
historians and TV presenters, Richard
Holmes is the author of several bestselling books, including Redcoat and Tommy, and has written and presented many popular series for the
BBC, including In the Footsteps of Churchill, Battlefields,
War Walks and The Western Front.
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He is Professor of Military and Security
Studies at Cranfield
University and lives in
Hampshire with his wife and two daughters.
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The
World at War was first produced and broadcast 31 by Thames
Television on October 1973, when memories of the Second World War were still
clear in people’s mind and the war’s veterans were numerous. The unique
television series assembled these recollections over 26 one-hour programmes.
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Produced by Sir Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Sir Laurence
Olivier and unforgettably scored by Carl Davis, it was a seminal moment in the
history of television documentaries, setting the standard by which all factual
programming was thereafter judged.
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The World at War has been licensed to Ebury
Press by FremantleMedia Enterprises, the content exploitation arm of
FremantleMedia, one of the world’s largest creators, producers, distributors
and licensors of programme brands in over 40 territories worldwide.
BOX SET CONTENTS/DVD
SPECIFICATIONSÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
- All 26 episodes                                 Â
- All 8 Special Presentations
- 3 hour 30th Anniversary Disc containing previously unseen
interviews & retrospective
  interviews
with the original production team.
DVD EXTRAS
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Imperial War Museum
Photo Gallery
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Biographies
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Brief History of The
World at War
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Episode Summaries
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Speeches/Songs &
Newsreels/Maps
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Cat number:
FHEDWARÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Running time:
35 hours 39mins approx
Price: £99.99
Certificate: E
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