The World at War Secretary to Winston Churchill), Averell Harriman (US Ambassador to the Soviet Union) and Arthur ""Bomber"" Harris (Head of RAF Bomber Command). The World at War The World at War (1973–74) is a 26-episode British television documentary series chronicling the events of the Second World War. It was at the time of its completion in 1973, at a cost of £900,000 (), the most expensive factual series ever made. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier and included music composed by Carl Davis. The book, "The World at War", published the same year, was written by Mark Arnold-Forster
The World at War BBC Two in the UK transmitted a repeat run of the series starting on 5 September 1994 at teatime. In 2011, the British channel Yesterday started a showing of the series and it has been shown continuously to this day at various times. The series was shown in full on SABC in South Africa in 1976, one of the first documentary series broadcast after the launch of the first television service in South Africa in Jan 1976. Each episode was 52 minutes excluding commercials; as was customary for ITV documentary series at the time, it was originally screened with only