Isaacs was determined that the series would be the most comprehensive history of the war yet attempted, based on extensive research. and would aim to meet the highest standards. Operating in no less than 18 countries over a period of four years, the team was faced with a massive task, trawling through 3 million feet of archive film (much of it unseen since the war) and adding to this a further I million feet of material comprising interviews and location filming. Everything the researchers viewed was carefully cataloged and recorded in a central log book to facilitate future reference. The checking of historical accuracy was placed in the hands of the academic Dr. Noble Frank­ land.

     The interviews with surviving veterans were considered a crucial element of the project, and much effort was devoted to obtaining the recollections of a wide selection of veterans. ranging from key military and political personalities to ordinary soldiers and civilians caught up in the conflict. Among the interviewees were such notable (and sometimes controversial) figures as Hitler's personal secretary. Traudl Junge; U-boat commander and head of the German Navy Karl Donitz: German armaments minister Albert Speer; Himmler's adjutant, Karl Wolff: British foreign secretary (and later prime minister) Anthony Eden: Winston Churchill's parliamentary private secretary. John Colville: head of RAF Bomber Command Arthur "Bomber" Harris; U.S. ambassador to Russia Averill Harriman: and Hollywood film star and USAAF bomber pilot James Stewart. Some of the most telling interviews, however, were those made with the ordinary people of all nationalities who found themselves overtaken by the war, ranging from fighter pilots and shipwrecked seamen to Russian housewives and concentration camp survivors. Their testimony brought vivid realism to the unfolding of the events that took place between the rise of the Nazis in prewar Germany and the Japanese surrender following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

     There were many technical challenges to be met. As well as having to combine color with monochrome film and amateur with professionally filmed footage, the team also had to do extensive work on the sound­ track, much of the original film being silent. Every effort was made to ensure that the soundtrack for the series was as authentic as possible. with recordings being specially made of the various armaments depicted. To provide an appropriately grave tone the duty of narrating the series was entrusted to the most celebrated figure on the contemporary stage, the British actor Sir Laurence Olivier, whose masterly delivery added both authority and humanity to the series. Other important finishing touches included the compilation of a striking title sequence (18 months in the preparation) to a memorable score by Carl Davis.

     Shot on 16 millimeter, the first episode of the finished series (which cost in all around £1 million), titled A New Germany. went out on Wednesday, October 31, 1973. at 9 P.M, -although a television station in Houston had in fact already started showing the series some three weeks earlier. The whole series was broadcast as 26 one-hour episodes over a period of six months and met with immediate acclaim. The program attracted huge audiences. and one episode titled Morning, covering the D-Day landings. appeared in the top 10 audience ratings-an unprecedented success for a documentary program. The series was universally recognized as one of the most ambitious television documentary projects ever undertaken and won awards all round the world, among them an International Emmy and the George Polk Memorial Award.

     Only one-hundredth of the material originally gathered by the research team was used in the final series. Selections of what remained was used for six World at War specials made three years later (1975), with another Shakespearean actor. Eric Porter, succeeding Olivier as narrator. The original series has been screened in nearly 100 countries and was repeated on BBC 2 in 1994 (and again in 2000). The program has aged well and remains unrivalled as a televisual source on the war. if only because many of the eyewitnesses interviewed are no longer living and available for further questioning. The account of events and the analysis offered in the narration have never been seriously challenged by experts on the period. The accompanying book to the series sold half a million copies and was translated into 14 languages, and the original 26 episodes have also been made available on videotape.

     Many of the people involved in producing the series went on to further success in the British media. Writer Charles Douglas-Home was appointed editor of The Times, while producer and director David Elstein became director of programmes at Thames and chief executive of Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. Another producer. Ted Childs, carved a reputation as an influential maker of British television drama. with such series as The Sweeney, inspector Morse, and Kavanagh QC. Jeremy Isaacs, the prime mover behind the whole undertaking, became founding chief executive of Channel 4 and subsequently general director of the Royal Opera House.