The World at War was commissioned by Thames Television in 1969. As a consequence, Isaacs was determined to have his programme be as authentic as possible. However, the BBC series, which had been produced in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, featured a mix of contemporary film footage from the period, and film recreations, which caused a souring of relations between the BBC and the Imperial War Museum. Jeremy Isaacs had been inspired to look at the production of a long form documentary series about the Second World War following the BBC's broadcast of its series The Great War in 1964. Among many other aspects, the series focused on a portrayal of the experience of the conflict: of how life and death throughout the war years affected soldiers, sailors and airmen, civilians, concentration camp inmates and other victims of the war. The World at War attracted widespread acclaim and is now regarded as a landmark in British television history. The book, The World at War, published the same year, was written by Mark Arnold-Forster to accompany the TV series. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier and included music composed by Carl Davis.

It was at the time of its completion in 1973, at a cost of £900,000 (equivalent to £11,000,000 in 2019), the most expensive factual series ever made. The World at War is a British 26-episode documentary television series chronicling the events of the Second World War. JSTOR ( April 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

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