''Britain's Great War'' is a British documentary television series that broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

27 January 2014. The documentary series is presented by

Jeremy Paxman Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English former broadcaster, journalist and author, born in Yorkshire. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate ...

and was produced by the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

and BBC Productions. The series shows how

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

affected Britain and its people. The series leads the BBC World War I centenary season.

Production

, the presenter of the series, said: "The trouble with so much of our understanding of World War One is that it is seen through the prism of the prejudices of the hundred years which have followed it. It's an amazing and important story which deserves to be viewed afresh." A re-version of the series will be released for BBC Learning. The series consists of four hour-long episodes.

Episode list

Media

The television series is an accompaniment to Jeremy Paxman's book ''Great Britain's Great War''.

Reception

Ratings

The four episodes had viewing audiences of 17.4%, 12.7%, 13.2% and 12.9% respectively.

Critical reception

David Chater of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' called the series "superb" and said it "does justice to the unimaginable scale of a cataclysm". Clarissa Tan from ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' said Paxman presented "with assuredness and gravitas".

Hugo Rifkind Hugo James Rifkind (born 30 March 1977) is a British journalist. He has been a columnist for ''The Times'' since 2005. He also presents a mid-morning show on Times Radio, Mondays to Thursdays (from Sept 2024.) From July 2020 (the station's laun ...

, another journalist for ''The Times'', said: "Documentaries must cater for those who know lots and those who know nothing. Jeremy Paxman gets the balance right". John Crace writing in ''The Guardian'' described the series as disconnected. He went on to describe it as if there was a contextual void at the centre. It wasn't that the series demanded a great historical debate on the causes of the war – though it did seem perverse that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the Balkans or European imperialism didn't get a mention. However Nigel H. Jones, writing for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', commented on how moving the series was, defying his low expectations. After the second episode was shown, Jeremy Paxman faced a furious backlash after calling the extreme conscientious objectors in the First World War "cranks". The ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its e ...

'' reported a spokesman for the campaign group

Peace Pledge Union The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) is a non-governmental organisation that promotes pacifism, based in the United Kingdom. Its members are signatories to the following pledge: "War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determine ...

describing Paxman's remarks as "unhelpful and silly". The spokesman then went on to say "One of the main issues they felt strongly about was the coercive power of the state to force people to kill, and if that is cranky I wish there were more of them. It seems to me a very laudable thing to do."

References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, tt3469680
Open University website
2014 British television series debuts 2014 British television series endings 2010s British documentary television series British English-language television shows Documentary films about World War I BBC television documentaries about history during the 20th Century