‘World on Fire’ Portrays the Reality, Heroism & Tragedy of War (VIDEO)
In 1939, Hitler lit the match. PBS miniseries World on Fire, with an international cast portrays the reality, heroism and tragedy of war on MASTERPIECE in seven parts on Sundays, April 5 through May 17 on PBS.
The miniseries follows the lives of ordinary people coping with the greatest war in human history.
Dusan Martincek / © Mammoth Screen 2019
Academy Award-winner Helen Hunt stars as an American broadcaster reporting from Warsaw and Berlin as fighting erupts. Sean Bean plays a World War I veteran-turned-pacifist trying to cope with chronic shellshock while looking after his working-class family. And Academy Award®nominee Lesley Manville is a British fascist sympathizer who finds herself sheltering a young refugee.
Ben Blackall / © Mammoth Screen 2019
Also starring are Jonah Hauer-King as an idealistic British translator and army officer, Blake Harrison as a stalwart English sergeant, Julia Brown as a feisty armed services entertainer, Zofia Wichłacz as a Polish resistance fighter, Brian J. Smith as an American doctor in occupied Paris, and Parker Sawyers as a Parisian jazz musician.
Set in Britain, Poland, France, and Germany—on the frontlines and the home front, World on Fire traces the interweaved fates of several families in 1939 and 1940, from the Nazi invasion of Poland, to the near debacle at Dunkirk, to the fall of Paris and beyond.
Ben Blackall / © Mammoth Screen 2019
In Manchester, England, Douglas Bennett is fighting a losing battle for pacifism as his country spirals into war. His lawbreaking son, Tom (Ewan Mitchell), is given the choice of prison or the military. His daughter, Lois, is a factory worker and talented singer, involved in a romance with upper class translator Harry Chase, much to the dismay of Harry’s aloof mother, Robina.
Masterpiece: World of Fire, Premiere, Sunday, April 5, 9/8c, PBS (Check your local listings)
