The second world war epic – which ends this weekend – refuses to sanitise the horrors of conflict, bringing us harsh, human and hopeful stories
There’s something so fitting about the fact that the final episode of Peter Bowker’s second world war drama, World on Fire, will air on Remembrance Sunday. A sweeping look at events across Europe after the outbreak of war, from the start it has been clear that conflict has a heavy price, and that we should never forget both the sacrifice and the suffering of those who lived through it.
This is not, however, the blind jingoism of those who trot out old canards about ‘our finest hour’ as though there is nothing better than viewing a nation through the prism of destruction and death. Instead, Bowker’s story – in addition to being cracking Sunday night viewing – has worked precisely because it has refused to shy away from the true cost of war. It repeatedly reminds us of the everyday struggles, big and small, of people from Poland to
Paris, showing us that people didn’t simply dust themselves off and get on with life but were instead always fundamentally altered by their experiences.