The BBC at War was presented by Jonathan Dimbleby about the BBC and how it operated during WWII. The two episodes were show in late June early July during Wimbledon Tennis but this was the first mistake as this sort of topic is hard to condense into two episodes. It was very hard to watch as it was quite bland and boring which was not helped by Dimbleby presenting, chosen as his father Richard Dimbleby had been a BBC correspodnent during the war. I was surprised to see no mention of Eric Blair (George Orwell) who was with the BBC for two years. The programme was written by Jonathan Dimbleby who went on about censorship and seemed confused by this during war time, implying that Churchill tried to strangle the BBC making certain reports attempting to equate today with then. This was a hard programme to follow as well as understand. Dimbleby was on plenty of locations in North Africa and France etc but with no real reason to be, it didn't add anything and was fruitless. I thought this could have been a good series if the role of the BBC at the home and war front was properly addressed, looking at how the programmes were made and transmitted, what equipment was used by correspondents out in the battlefield and what programmes were being aired. It should be noted it was Jonathan Dimbleby's production company that created it. There was a mention of Guy Byam who parachuted with the 6th Airborne Division on D-Day as well as Dimbleby's father's recording of his towing a glider for Operation Varsity, again with the 6th Airborne Division. I feel this was a put on job by the BBC as the BBC's licence is under review, alot like that letter Danny Cohen asked the luvvies to sign, to show how brave the BBC was during the war which is why they missed the mark here. This could have been made into a series like The World at War and could have gripped viewers rather than put them to sleep. They could have shown how the BBC united a nation with everyone reliant on the news, sport and entertainment; for some it was their only escape. Very dissapointing.
Agree is was a missed opportunity and felt more like "Dimbleby at War" rather than "BBC at War". There was nothing about BBC broadcasts to Germany and no mention of the relationship with the Political Warfare Executive. There should have been more detail on the V for Victory campaign and how it panned out.
