The World at War is the greatest documentary series ever made

To present a TV history documentary these days, one must first have access to the full Angels and Bermans dressing-up box – everything from britches to bonnets. The past must be experienced as pantalooned immersion: throw in some CGI cavalry charges or naval battles, plus artfully dressed period locations, back-alley washing-lines fluttering with greying rags, and you are just about ready to go. This is not necessarily to complain. Every generation finds its own way of exploring complex historical questions.

But there is one television series that stands as a monument to the virtues of focused seriousness, and that is still being streamed today. Fifty years ago this month, in 1973, ITV audiences sat down to watch – and to absorb – the most remarkably comprehensive and compelling chronicle of the then recent past, The World At War.