The World Wars is a three-part, six-hour event miniseries by the History Channel that premiered on Monday, May 26, 2014, (Memorial Day) airing for three consecutive nights. An extended version of the series, divided into six episodes with never before seen footage, was subsequently broadcast on H2 and in more than 160 countries on June 22, 2014.
Narrated by Jeremy Renner, the documentary series features a mix of dramatic reenactments, archival stills and footage, and interviews with historians and authors alongside current and former prominent political figures such as former U.S. Senator John McCain from Arizona, former U.S. General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, former British prime minister John Major, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and many more.
The show was produced for History Channel by Stephen David Entertainment, the production company behind the Emmy Award-winning miniseries The Men Who Built America. A portion of the filming took place in and around Martinsburg, West Virginia in the United States during October and November 2013. The series was introduced by United States President Barack Obama in a pre-recorded message.
Overview According to the History Channel, the miniseries "showcase(s) the thirty year period that changed the course of human history", documenting both World Wars and the interwar era in a continuous timeline from 1914 to 1945. The series takes a personality-driven approach, focusing on some of the key players of World War II (Hitler, Mussolini, Patton, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt), and chronicling how their experiences as younger men in the First World War shaped them into the leaders they became in World War II.
Cast The series features two actors for each of the main characters, one young (during WWI) and one older (during World War II and its lead-up).
Winston Churchill – Ian Beyts Young Churchill – Tom Vickers Charles De Gaulle – Don Meehan Young De Gaulle – Michael Perrie Adolf Hitler – Hugh Scully Young Hitler – Maximilian Klas Douglas MacArthur – Dan Berkey Young MacArthur – Prescott Hathaway
Benito Mussolini – Jonathan Hartman Young Mussolini – Nabil Vinas George S. Patton – Don Hartman Young Patton – Matt Dearman Franklin Delano Roosevelt – Dino Gigaliano Young Roosevelt – Kevin McKillip Joseph Stalin – Joseph Scott Barbarino Young Stalin – Jacopo Rampini
Hideki Tojo – Isao Ota Young Tojo – Koji Oshashi Vladimir Lenin – C. Conrad Cady Bernard Montgomery – Joe Bevilacqua Harry S. Truman – David Mitchum Brown Woodrow Wilson – Judd Bankert George Marshall – Sewell Whitney
Experts The following people appear as talking head experts throughout the series.
Politicians/Military Figures: Dick Cheney Joe Lieberman John Major John McCain Stanley McChrystal Mario Monti David Miliband Richard Myers Leon Panetta Colin Powell Donald Rumsfeld
Historians/Authors: Michael Beschloss Richard Bosworth H. W. Brands Douglas Brinkley Johann Chapoutot Richard Connaughton Richard Evans Robert Gellately Steven Gillon Max Hastings Sönke Neitzel Paul Reid Ron Rosenbaum Adam Tooze
Episodes
Expanded version During the expanded re-airings during June, instead of three episodes, the series was split into six episodes.
"Trial by Fire" and "Never Surrender", episodes 1 and 5 of the expanded six-part series, use the same names as episodes 1 and 3 of the original three part series with two hour episodes.
Home media On September 9, 2014, the miniseries was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. The two-disc includes English subtitles and bonus material, such as deleted scenes of over an hour of footage cut from the original U.S. broadcast; "Characters In Depth" of Churchill, Stalin, Truman, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Hitler; and 10 featurettes on both wars. UltraViolet digital copies of each episode were also included.
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