Britain's Greatest Generation

The USA reveres its senior citizens who lived through the Depression of the 1930s and then went on to help win WW2. They are known as America’s Greatest Generation, however if they’re great, how much greater are their British counterparts?

Not only did millions of Britons endure the Depression, when war came they fought for longer and in more far-flung places than any other nation. And – unlike Americans – they saw their homes and families come under direct attack from a ruthless enemy. When victory was eventually won, Britain endured ten more years of ‘austerity’ – basically another Depression – while the USA enjoyed unprecedented affluence. And while they were rebuilding their war-ravaged country they found time to create the NHS and the Welfare State! The time has come to give this unique group of men and women the honour and recognition they so richly deserve.

Britain’s Greatest Generation recounts a genuinely epic and heroic narrative, covering over 100 years of British history from the start of WW1 up to the modern day. This poignant and inspirational story is told by the surviving members of the generation; their recollections superbly illustrated with painstakingly-researched film and photos from national collections; and material from their personal archives.

This may be the last chance we get to hear how and why the people of this nation came together to achieve a unique moment of almost transcendent greatness. To learn why they chose to take up the struggle against a seemingly invincible foe; why they decided to keep going when all seemed lost; why they stood alone and stuck together as a beacon of hope to the enslaved; why they endured seemingly unending hardship, and how they finally came to prevail – all be it at enormous costs.

And we will learn how they did all this – in the most part – generously and with good humour, reflecting the fundamental decency of the British people – or at least of one extraordinary group of them.