A WORLD AT WAR
SEAN BEAN STARS IN A NEW DRAMA TELLING THE STORY OF WW2 FROM MULTIPLE SIDES…
There have been many TV dramas (not to mention films) about the Second World War, but most of them tell the story from the point of view of a particular country – usually the one making the drama in the first place. New sevenparter World On Fire does things a little differently, by charting the conflict from the perspective of ordinary people in multiple countries.
“Richard Overy – our historical adviser – said that even in wartime, people’s concerns remain the same,” explains writer Peter Bowker. “It might be heightened and pressured, but our habits of life don’t change – and that’s what I’ve tried to capture.
“I asked the Imperial War Museum if they had any diaries from young women around that time in Warsaw, and within three days they’d found me two. It was very reassuring, because one paragraph was about finding decent coffee, the next was about boys, and the third was, ‘I joined the Resistance today, it’s run by the local Scoutmaster’.”
These diaries helped Peter to flesh out the character of Polish waitress Kasia, whose English lover Harry, a translator stationed in Warsaw, is trying to smuggle her out of the country to safety.
“I always saw her journey as that of a fighter,” explains Zofia Wichłacz, who plays her. “We don’t see it exactly in the first episode, but you’ll see it later – she and her family quickly have to face the cruelty of this war. Kasia will have to fight for some things in her life that she’s already lost, and for people that she loves.”
And while Harry’s attempts to save Kasia might come across as heroic, actor Jonah Hauer-king warns us that his character doesn’t necessarily have the purest of motives.
“I remember finding it very difficult to defend him,” he admits. “It was Adam [Smith, the director] who said the very simple but pertinent thing of ‘we don’t have to make our characters the heroes’ – it’s a more interesting journey for the audience because we meet him at a time when he’s well-intentioned and full of love, but also very flawed, and quite reckless and selfish.”
Back in Britain, Harry’s former girlfriend, Lois Bennett, is protesting against the potential rise of fascism in the UK, while also trying to keep some joy in her life by singing in jazz clubs.
“We didn’t want her to sound like a showstopper,” points out Julia Brown, who plays Lois. “She’s basically still a working-class girl, and she sings for fun. But the great thing about all of the songs is that the lyrics meant something different to her for where she was in her story – they all relate quite nicely, and it was just such an honour to sing some of these classics.”
Another perspective on the period is represented by Lois’ father Douglas, played by Sean Bean, whose memories of fighting in WW1 are still
DOUGLAS IS DAMAGED AND TRYING TO HOLD THINGS TOGETHER” SEAN