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The World at War (1973)
9.2/10on IMDb
First aired
The benchmark for archive-led war history, and still the place to start on the Second World War. Thames Television made its 26 episodes with the Imperial War Museum, and the interviews are what lift it: Albert Speer, Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge and SS general Karl Wolff speak alongside soldiers and civilians from both sides. Laurence Olivier's narration is grave without being pompous. It first aired in 1973, so scholarship on the Holocaust and the Eastern Front has moved a long way since, and later series here fill those gaps well.
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The Great War (1964)
8.9/10on IMDb
First aired
The first series to put First World War veterans in front of a television camera, after a public appeal in the national press brought them forward, and their testimony is the reason to watch it now. The 26 episodes ran on the BBC in 1964, with Michael Redgrave narrating and historians including John Terraine and Correlli Barnett behind the scripts. Long stretches of silent footage and an unhurried rhythm belong to their era, so it works best a couple of episodes at a time. For the voices of men who were there, nothing else comes close.
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The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century (1996)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
A companion to the 1964 series rather than a replacement. Where that one gives you the veterans, this eight-part production from KCET, the BBC and the Imperial War Museum follows the war into the century it shaped, with Jay Winter as chief historian. A voice cast including Ralph Fiennes and Jürgen Prochnow lends weight to the words of the period, and Judi Dench narrates the UK version. It won two Primetime Emmys and a Peabody, and at eight hours it is the more manageable of the two.
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The Nazis: A Warning from History (1997)
8.7/10on IMDb
First aired
Six episodes on how the Nazis took power, held it and fell, and still the clearest introduction to the Third Reich on screen. Laurence Rees wrote and produced it with Ian Kershaw as historical and script consultant, so the argument rests on firm ground. Its distinctive strength is the eyewitness interviews, set against archive footage and left to speak with little embellishment. Samuel West's narration is restrained throughout. It won a Peabody and the BAFTA for best factual series, and nearly three decades on it has hardly dated.
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Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow (1996)
8.4/10on IMDb
First aired
Made not long after the Soviet Union collapsed, when formerly secret Soviet archives opened to Western and Russian historians for the first time, this ten-part British-Russian series tells the Eastern Front and the Stalin years around it from the Soviet side. That is exactly the part of the war The World at War could only glimpse. Richard Overy is credited as historical consultant and Nigel Hawthorne narrates. It is grim, demanding viewing, but for the scale and cost of the fighting in the east it is the series to watch.
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Cold War (1998)
8.7/10on IMDb
First aired
Jeremy Isaacs, who produced The World at War, came back for the sequel the century needed: 24 episodes running from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. He co-produced it with Pat Mitchell for CNN, Kenneth Branagh narrates, and each episode pairs archive footage with interviews from significant figures. Historians argued about it at the time, with Richard Pipes, Robert Conquest and John Lewis Gaddis debating its accuracy, which is worth knowing as you watch. No other series covers the whole conflict at this depth.
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People's Century (1995)
8.8/10on IMDb
First aired
The twentieth century told from below. Across 26 one-hour episodes, the BBC and WGBH Boston interviewed mostly ordinary men and women who had witnessed events up close, and let them carry each story of social, political and cultural change. You can dip into the hours that interest you rather than committing to a strict chronology, which makes it the friendliest way into the century. It won an International Emmy, and its witnesses make it a precious record as well as a superb introduction.
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Vietnam: A Television History (1983)
8.7/10on IMDb
First aired
WGBH's 13-part history, with Stanley Karnow as chief correspondent and historical adviser, sees the war through the eyes of American soldiers and everyday Vietnamese people, including survivors of the Thuy Bo massacre. That breadth stirred controversy: Accuracy in Media answered it with a rebuttal film, Television's Vietnam: The Real Story, which PBS aired in 1985. The series won six Emmys and a Peabody among other honours. Some framing belongs to the early 1980s, but it remains the best grounding in the war outside Ken Burns's later series.
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Eyes on the Prize (1987)
9.1/10on IMDb
First aired
Henry Hampton's history of the American civil rights movement is built from archival footage, stills and interviews with the movement's participants and its opponents, and hearing both gives it real force. Julian Bond narrates. The first six episodes aired in 1987 and a second run of eight followed, so set aside time: the later episodes carry the story well beyond the familiar early landmarks. It won Emmys and Peabodys and was nominated for an Academy Award. Lapsed rights to its archive footage once took it out of circulation, so make the most of being able to watch it.
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The Death of Yugoslavia (1995)
8.6/10on IMDb
First aired
Six episodes on the break-up of Yugoslavia, with access that still astonishes. Producer Norma Percy's team interviewed most of the main players, including Slobodan Milošević, Franjo Tuđman, Alija Izetbegović and Radovan Karadžić, and set their words against archive footage that had never been seen before. Their accounts sit side by side, so you watch the competing justifications for yourself. The interviews were later used by the war crimes tribunal in prosecutions, and the series won the 1996 BAFTA for best factual series. It tells the story of the collapse, not the aftermath.
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Ireland: A Television History (1980)
8.8/10on IMDb
First aired
Robert Kee's 13-part history, made for the BBC with Jeremy Isaacs and also shown on RTÉ, set out to explain Ireland's long past to British viewers while the Troubles filled the news. Kee scripted and presented it, and it was received to critical acclaim and widely seen in Britain and the US. It won him a Jacob's Award. It stops at the conflict of its own day and some interpretations have since been revised, but as a patient route from the deep past to the 1970s it has not been bettered.
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Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland (2023)
8.8/10on IMDb
First aired
James Bluemel's five-part series is the newest landmark here and arguably the finest use of first-hand testimony on the list. Republican and loyalist paramilitaries, British Army veterans and others from all sides of the Troubles speak at length, with archive placing their memories rather than replacing them. It first aired on BBC Two in May 2023, twenty-five years on from the peace agreement. Pair it with Ireland: A Television History for the longer background; this is the one that makes the human cost unmistakable.
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Once Upon a Time in Iraq (2020)
9.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Bluemel's earlier series applies the same approach to Iraq, from the invasion to life under Islamic State. Its five episodes interview Iraqi citizens, American military personnel and international journalists, and draw on personal archive filmed by civilians and soldiers on both sides. It aired on BBC Two in July 2020 and was named best factual series at the 2021 British Academy Television Awards. Some testimony is very hard to hear, but for a conflict most viewers knew only through bulletins, it supplies the view from the ground.
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A History of Britain (2000)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Simon Schama wrote and presented these 15 episodes, broadcast over three series from 2000 to 2002 and running from 3000 BC to 1965. It is a storyteller's history built around people and turning points, and Schama's enthusiasm carries you through the centuries at a fine clip. The usual criticism is fair: it mostly revolves around England, gives short shrift to the Celtic inhabitants, and some critics objected to its inclusion of Ireland. Treat it as a vivid survey with a point of view, and seek out the Scottish and Welsh stories elsewhere.
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Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain (2007)
8.3/10on IMDb
First aired
Five episodes on Britain from the end of the Second World War onwards, presented by Andrew Marr. It moves briskly through governments, crises and social change, which makes it the quickest route on this list to understanding how post-war Britain became the country it is. It was highly praised and led to a follow-up series covering 1900 to 1945, worth watching first if you want the run-up. Its view of the most recent decades is that of 2007, so the closing stretch has dated fastest.
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Black and British: A Forgotten History (2016)
7.9/10on IMDb
First aired
David Olusoga's four-part series begins with people who arrived as part of the Roman occupation and traces Britain's relationship with people whose origins lie in Africa through the centuries since. It is the corrective many older surveys of British history needed, grounded in named individuals rather than generalities: twenty commemorative plaques honouring people it discusses were put up alongside it. First broadcast in November 2016, it pairs well with A History of Britain, and the accompanying book won the 2017 Hessell-Tiltman Prize.
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The Story of India (2007)
8.4/10on IMDb
First aired
Michael Wood wrote and presented these six episodes for BBC Two in 2007, travelling the modern subcontinent to tell a story that runs from the first human migrations out of Africa to the events that led to Partition in 1947. Wood's delight in landscape and living tradition makes the ancient past feel present, and the photography is gorgeous. It is a sweeping survey rather than a detailed political history, but no single series introduces India's deep past as warmly.
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The Ascent of Man (1973)
8.8/10on IMDb
First aired
Jacob Bronowski's 13-part history of science, made by the BBC and Time-Life Films as a personal view in the manner of Kenneth Clark's Civilisation. It is more argument than survey, and Bronowski's highly informed but eloquently simple explanations remain the draw half a century on. The eleventh episode, Knowledge or Certainty, ends with one of the most affecting moments in documentary television, best met without warning. Some of the science has moved on and the title shows its age, but as an account of how people came to understand the world it still holds.
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Connections (1978)
9.3/10on IMDb
First aired
James Burke's ten-episode BBC series starts from an event in the past and traces a chain of seemingly unrelated connections to the inventions of the modern world. It is the history of technology as a detective story, and its energy and wit still work even where the gadgets on screen have dated. It first aired in 1978, and Burke went on to make three sequels, the latest a six-episode series on Curiosity Stream in 2023, so if the original grabs you there is more to follow.
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