The Great War (documentary)

The Great War
Image from the Imperial War Museum photo archive, part of the opening titles.
Written by	John Terraine Corelli Barnett
Voices of	Marius Goring Ralph Richardson Cyril Luckham Sebastian Shaw Emlyn Williams
Narrated by	Michael Redgrave
Theme music composer	Wilfred Josephs
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	26
Production
Producer(s)	Tony Essex Gordon Watkins John Terraine (Associate Producer, Britain) Ed Rollins (Associate Producer, Canada) Tom Manefield (Associate Producer, Australia)
Running time	40 minutes
Production company(s)	BBC TV Imperial War Museum Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Commission
Release
Original network	BBC1
Picture format	Black-and-white
Original release	30 May – 22 November 1964

The Great War is a 26-episode documentary series from 1964 on the First World War. The documentary was a co-production of the Imperial War Museum, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The narrator was Michael Redgrave, with readings by Marius Goring, Ralph Richardson, Cyril Luckham, Sebastian Shaw and Emlyn Williams. Each episode is c. 40 minutes long.

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.