Things have changed a lot since 1945, but it’s important to look back in order to move forwards and BBC ONE WWII drama World On Fire looks set to lead the charge on the small screen. With an impressive cast and UK air date planned for later in 2019 (details below) it’s set to be a year of big dramatisations centred around wars in the 20th Century with 1917 also out on the big screen this year and Catch 22 having made its debut on Channel 4.
To create such a big production for BBC ONE, Mammoth Screen, part of ITV Studios, will undoubtedly be throwing everything into the series, including the theme tune and music. It’s recently been picked up by PBS Masterpiece to air in the US alongside its UK run, so there’s even more reason to impress in addition to marking yet another reminder of the human impact of World War II.
The first series of World On Fire will tell the story of the first year of battle as the war scythes through the lives of people throughout the world. It’ll be told through a number of different viewpoints following the lives of people from the UK, US, Germany, Poland and France as they face the coming storm of a war that goes on to claim the lives of between 75 and 80 million men, women and children.
It sounds like the show will continue to run after series 1 to cover the rest of the war over the coming years to take us right the way up to 1945 and the eventual surrender of German forces following Hitler’s suicide. If that’s the case and it continues to cover a single year of the war in each series then we could well be in for six series in total.
Trailer song
If you’ve seen the World On Fire trailer on YouTube or on the BBC ONE ad spots then you might be wondering what the song is that runs in the background. It’s called Stronger Than Ever and it’s by Raleigh Ritchie, a Bristol-born actor, singer-songwriter and wrapper whose real name is Jacob Anderson.
AdvertisementYou can listen to the trailer song with the video below, which has already clocked up an impressive 9 million views. It’s taken from his 2016 debut album, You’re a Man Now, Boy, which charted at #32 in the UK album charts.
He’s bigger in the States than in the UK, getting enough of a reputation to secure a cameo on Saturday Night Live earlier in 2019. You’ll probably know him best for his acting performance in Game Of Thrones where he played Greyworm.
He also starred in Broadchurch, Silent Witness, Skins, Outnumbered and Spooks.
World On Fire BBC ONE cast
With such a wide ranging production, the World On Fire cast is clearly going to be significant, covering both big names and new stars. Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets), Sean Bean (The Lord Of The Rings) and Leslie Manville (Mum) will all feature heavily in series 1 with action taking us from the invasion of Poland in September 1939 to the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940.
They’re joined by British actors Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women, Howard’s End) and Julia Brown (The Last Kingdom), along with relative newcomers Zofia Wichłacz, Brian J. Smith, Parker Sawyers, Tomasz Kot, Bruno Alexander, Johannes Zeiler and Eugénie Derouand.
BBC ONE UK air date and US syndication
The World On Fire UK air date premier was on Sunday 29th September 2019 at 9pm, confirming the earlier details that it would be arriving on BBC ONE before the end of the year. The show is made up of 7 1-hour episodes in season 1, which will run through until mid November 2019.
Filming took place in various locations in 2018, and you can see from the promo image above that things looked pretty complete back in August, confirming that series 1 was good to go. PBS Masterpiece has taken up the series to air in the US, and the premier was as expected in September. You can see more from Mammoth Screen at www.mammothscreen.com.
World On Fire theme tune and music
A trailer for World On Fire arrived in early September and you can check it out below. It teased the song mentioned above, but contained little of the theme tune or the music that forms a part of series 1. The title song is dramatic with classical music at its heart, tying in with the emotional and momentous story. As expected, there are no lyrics, as the song veers away from vocal music or an adaptation of a 1940s war song.
The music is composed by Dan Jones whose previous credits include The Miniaturist, for which he picked up his 3rd Ivor Novello Award. He could well add number 4 to his tally for his work on World On Fire.
You can follow BBC ONE on its official Twitter page at twitter.com/BBCOne to keep an eye out for more on the drama.
