Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain

★ 8 · 2009 · 60m · Documentary

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain is a 2009 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War. It was a follow-up to his 2007 series Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain.

Episodes

▶1. A New Dawn60m · In the first of a six-part series, Andrew Marr revisits Britain at the dawn of the 20th century. He finds the country mourning the death of Queen Victoria; fighting an intractable war against the Boers in South Africa; enjoying the bawdy pleasures of music hall; and worrying about the physical and moral strength of the working class.▶2. Road to War60m · The assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo sets in motion the wheels of world war. In the corridors of Westminster old allies Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George fight over strategy. Out on the streets, the people are eager for battle, determined to 'teach the Hun a lesson'. Britain is on the road to war.▶3. The Great War60m · Britain gets its first taste of total war. Marr argues that no shock has ever hit these islands with quite the force of what became known as the Great War. It transformed the lives of the British people - most dramatically the millions who fought on the frontline but also those at home who were bereaved, bombed, uprooted and bankrupted.▶4. Having a Ball60m · In the 1920s, Imperial Britannia was sliding from view and a more modern Britain tried everything new and asked endless questions about how we should live our lives. A great new age of experiment arrived in politics, writing, art, sex and drugs. Survivors of World War I threw themselves into the new urban scene of nightclubs, cocktails and jazz, where royalty, gangsters and Hollywood stars rubbed shoulders with new money.▶5. Little Britain60m · For Andrew Marr, the story of Britain in the 1930s was one of betrayal, political extremism, unemployment and... hats. Bowlers, trilbies, top hats and flat caps were everywhere, as the country descended into chaos when the financial crash on Wall Street engulfed Britain. Solutions to the national crisis were offered by Britain's most unlikely paramilitaries, the Greenshirts.▶6. Britannia at Bay60m · Marr's story of 'the people's war' begins with the defeat that came to define modern Britain's national spirit: Dunkirk. In 1940, Britain stood alone against the might of the German war machine. Churchill produced the words that stirred the Blitz spirit, but a Nazi invasion seemed inevitable. How could Britain fight on? The 'Dad's Army' of the Home Guard was hastily assembled and Britain was forced to pull together in ways it never had before.

More Like This

1941-1945 At The Heart of The War In The Pacific

2015

This three-part series tells the story of the Pacific War. At sea, this modern conflict relies on aircraft carriers: the battles are fought by fighters and bombers, flying kilometers from these floating runways

More info →

Trains At War

2021

Examines four famous European battles of World War II: the Battle of Britain, the failure of Barbarossa, Operation Overlord and the liberation of France.

More info →

Inside the SS

2017 · ★ 6.8

With the aid of rare archives, this film retraces the bloody history of the SS, some of whose members are still alive and have accepted to speak.

More info →

Secrets of World War II

1998 · ★ 8

Rarely has a war produced such clear cut reasons to fight as World War II. Suddenly, ordinary men and women found themselves thrown into fearsome, situations worthy of any Hollywood movie. The only difference in this series is that every story is true. Real people emerge as the Heroes of Telemark. Ordinary GIs and US Airforce and Navy personnel suddenly find themselves flying against the Japanese in China, jungle fighting in Burma and being dropped by submarine on enemy coasts at midnight. These untold stories can now be examined in great detail with the benefit of hindsight, newly-discovered film, maps and graphics. Each fifty-two minute story covers the background to the main action. It will give the viewer a clear view of the historical context, the strategic objective and the tactical effort made by flyers, sailors and foot-soldiers - often in the most oppressive and life-threatening situations - to win victory from the enemy.

More info →

Living with Hitler

2021 · ★ 8.7

The Nazi era from 1993 to 1945 is illustrated through archived material, with insights and anecdotes provided by world-leading experts and commentators.

More info →

Soviet Storm: WW2 in the East

2010 · ★ 8.2

The epic television history of the Second World War’s Eastern Front giving an unprecedented Russian perspective on the war’s most decisive and bloody theater.

More info →