The Great War TV Series Overview (1964)

Introduction The Great War is a 26-episode British television documentary series chronicling the events of the First World War. Outline One of the greatest achievements of television -broadcast from 1964 in 26 episodes. Use of extensive archive footage and sound effects, linked with contemporary classic music of that area. Concentrated by the commentaries by Michael…

Andrew Marshall
3–4 minutes
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Introduction

The Great War is a 26-episode British television documentary series chronicling the events of the First World War.

Outline

One of the greatest achievements of television -broadcast from 1964 in 26 episodes. Use of extensive archive footage and sound effects, linked with contemporary classic music of that area. Concentrated by the commentaries by Michael Redgrave, and some of the finest male actors of the twentieth century. Still manages to be breathtaking despite the lack of special effects or modern gimmicks.

Trivia

  • In August 1963, at the suggestion of Alasdair Milne, producer of the BBC’s current affairs programme Tonight, the BBC resolved to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War with a big television project.
  • The series was the first to feature veterans, many of them still relatively fit men in their late sixties or early seventies, speaking of their experiences after a public appeal for veterans was published in the national press.
  • Those who appeared in the series included Edward Spears, Henry Williamson, Horace Birks, Benjamin Muse, Gustav Lachmann, Melvin Krulewitch, George Langley, Keith Officer, Douglas Wimberley, Charles Carrington, Egbert Cadbury, Euan Rabagliati, Robert Cotton Money, Norman Demuth, Walter Greenwood and Cecil Arthur Lewis.
  • Others who were interviewed by the BBC but not featured in the series included Norman MacMillan, Mabel Lethbridge, Edgar von Spiegel, Edmund Blunden, Martin Niemöller, John Shea, Hans Howaldt, William Ibbett, Marthe Bibesco, Philip Joubert de la Ferté, and Eric Dorman O’Gowan.
  • On 16 October 2013, fifty years after the release of the series, the BBC announced that unshown interview material, recorded during the making of The Great War, will be used in a new programme, My Great War, to be shown as part of the BBC’s programmes during the First World War centenary.

The Great War Series

The episode titles are taken from quotations, the origins of which are shown in parentheses. With few exceptions, successive blocks of episodes are devoted to each year of the war: episodes 1–6 to 1914, 7–10 to 1915, 11–14 to 1916, 15–19 to 1917, 20–23 and 26 to 1918.

Two “Extra” episodes exist on the dual-layer DVD 2002 edition:

  • Voices from the Western Front.
  • The Finished Fighter.

Production & Filming Details

  • Narrator(s): Michael Redgrave, with the voices of: Marius Goring, Ralph Richardson, Cyril Luckham, Sebastian Shaw, and Emlyn Williams.
  • Director(s):
  • Producer(s): Tony Essex, Gordon Watkins, John Terraine, Ed Rollins, Tom Manfield, and Alasdair Milne.
  • Writer(s): John Terraine, Corelli Barnett, Alistair Horne, Antony Jay, Robert Kee, Barrie Pitt, Edward Rollins, Harold Shukman, Gordon Watkins, and John Williams.
  • Music: Wilfred Josephs and Dennis Farnon (uncredited).
  • Editor(s): Pam Bosworth, Ian Callaway, Norman Carr, Peter Heelas, and Dave King.
  • Production: BBC. In collaboration with Imperial War Museum, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  • Distributor(s): BBC 2 (Original Network).
  • Release Date: 30 May 1964 to 22 November 1964.
  • Running Time: 40 minutes (per episode).
  • Country: UK.
  • Language: English.

 

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