''Oppenheimer'' is a

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

in seven parts about

J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is oft ...

, produced by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom between 29 October and 10 December 1980, and in the United States from 11 May 1982 as a component of

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Masterpiece Theatre ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaim ...

. The series stars

Sam Waterston Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television and, film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and has receive ...

as Oppenheimer.

Plot synopsis

The series depicts Oppenheimer's wartime role as head of the weapons laboratory of the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

, during which he was under constant surveillance by the federal government because of his association with Communists. It culminates in a

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...

hearing Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psycholog ...

in 1954, in which Oppenheimer is stripped of his security clearance.

Cast

* John Carson as Narrator * Christopher Muncke as

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Kenneth Nichols Major General Kenneth David Nichols CBE (13 November 1907 – 21 February 2000), also known by Nick, was an officer in the United States Army, and a civil engineer who worked on the secret Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb dur ...

* Jana Shelden as Kitty Oppenheimer * Kate Harper as

Jean Tatlock Jean Frances Tatlock (February 21, 1914 – January 4, 1944) was an American psychiatrist and physician. She was a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and was a reporter and writer for the party's publication ''Western ...

Edward Hardwicke Edward Cedric Hardwicke (7 August 1932 – 16 May 2011) was an English actor, who had a distinguished career on the stage and on-screen. He was best known for playing Captain Pat Grant in ''Colditz'' (1972-73), and Dr. Watson in Granada Te ...

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenh ...

Edward Teller Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...

* Manning Redwood as

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Leslie Groves Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project ...

* Peter Whitman as

Robert Serber Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. Serber's lectures explaining the basic principles and goals of the project were printed and supplied to all incoming scientific st ...

Matthew Guinness Matthew Guinness (born 6 June 1940) is an English actor. He portrayed the part of the Farmer in the 1976 film ''Nuts in May'', appears in Ridley Scott's ''The Duellists'' (1977) and had a small role in 1986's '' Lady Jane''. He has also worked ex ...

Hans Bethe Hans Albrecht Bethe (; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American theoretical physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics, and solid-state physics, and who won the 1967 Nobel Prize ...

* Bob Sherman as

Ernest Lawrence Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American nuclear physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation f ...

* John Morton as Robert Wilson *

Garrick Hagon Garrick Hagon (; born September 27, 1939) is a British-Canadian actor in film, stage, television and radio, known for his role as Biggs Darklighter in '' Star Wars: A New Hope''. His many films include ''Batman'', ''Spy Game'', ''Me and Orson ...

Frank Oppenheimer Frank Friedman Oppenheimer (August 14, 1912 – February 3, 1985) was an American particle physicist, cattle rancher, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, and the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. A younger brother ...

Liza Ross Liza may refer to * Liza (name), including a list of people named Liza * Liza (fish), ''Liza'' (fish), a genus of mullets * Liza (1972 film), ''Liza'' (1972 film), a 1972 Italian film * Liza (1978 film), ''Liza'' (1978 film), a 1978 Malayalam horro ...

as Jackie Oppenheimer *

Barry Dennen Barry Dennen (February 22, 1938 – September 26, 2017) was an American actor, singer, and writer. He played Pontius Pilate on the original recording and later in the film of ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. Life and career Dennen was born in Chicag ...

Isidor Rabi Isidor Isaac Rabi (; born Israel Isaac Rabi, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used in magnetic resonance im ...

* Peter Marinker as

Haakon Chevalier Haakon Maurice Chevalier (Lakewood Township, New Jersey, September 10, 1901 – July 4, 1985) was an American writer, translator, and professor of French literature at the University of California, Berkeley best known for his friendship with p ...

Sarah Brackett Sarah Evershed Brackett (13 May 1938 – 3 July 1996) was an American-born television and film actress who worked mostly in Britain. Brackett's parents were William Oliver Brackett, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Nancy Alexis Thompson, ...

Priscilla Duffield Priscilla Duffield (April 8, 1918 – July 21, 2009) worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. She was secretary to Ernest O. Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory, and to J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Los Alamos Laboratory. After th ...

Reception

Television critic John J. O'Connor wrote in ''The New York Times'' that Oppenheimer was "persuasively" played by Waterston, and that "the production is primarily interested in telling, quite absorbingly, one of the more puzzling and indeed astonishing stories of contemporary American history. ''Baltimore Sun'' TV critic Bill Carter called it "never less than a fascinating portrait of a truly fascinating man." while criticizing a "choppy production technique that makes much of the film seem rather raw." The series was nominated for seven

BAFTA Television Awards The BAFTA TV Awards, or British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the BAFTA. They have been awarded annually since 1955. Background The first-ever Awards, given in 1955, consisted of six categories. Until ...

and won three (Best Drama Series/Serial, Best Film Editor ( Tariq Anwar), and Best Original Television Music (

Carl Davis Carl Davis, (born October 28, 1936) is an American-born conductor and composer who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1961. He has written music for more than 100 television programmes, but is best known for creating music to accompany si ...

)). It was nominated for two

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

, for Outstanding Limited Series and for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special ( Peter Prince). It was nominated for a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV (Sam Waterston). Major General

disputed his portrayal in the series, saying that it "portrayed me serving as a personal aide to Groves on frequent visits to Los Alamos," when he only did so once.''The Road to Trinity: A Personal Account of How America’s Nuclear Policies Were Made'' by Kenneth D. Nichols (1987, Morrow, New York)

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0078037, title=Oppenheimer 1980 British television series debuts 1980 British television series endings 1980s British drama television series BAFTA winners (television series) BBC television docudramas 1980s British television miniseries Cultural depictions of J. Robert Oppenheimer Television series about the Manhattan Project Science docudramas English-language television shows Television shows about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki American Playhouse