Hey it is a great series (if very English, and it was a WORLD WAR). My biggest criticism is they have different ethnicity's represented but all were voiced by English readers. It's a serious flaw. Like watching Enemy At The Gates bad with Russians roles with English accents. Maybe people don't care about that anymore?
It's kind of why I (only) give this series an 8, too English.
I was happy that they used English accents for the voices of non-English speakers. If they didn't they'd run the risk of terrible/corny attempts at the accents distracting from what they are saying. 'Ze Englanders vere attacking in ze evening' etc. Although it really is a matter of taste rather than fact. I prefer films not to have the foreign accents if they're not speaking the foreign language.
I wouldn't say it was too English, if anything the attention they gave to the other fronts (Caucasus, Italian, Eastern etc.) showed it to be more all-encompasing than most documentaries. Also, don't forget it was made in Britain, with British funding and researched by an British author.
Seconded. It's voice-over narration in a documentary, not a film or dramatic series, so why worry about it?
"Paper can be ripped - like your HEAD!"
I really really HATE this kind of criticism. The programme is a UK production, hence UK voices. If the person is French or German, what's wrong with having an English voice simply speaking in their normal accent? It's a totally different matter if the original person is say American or Aussie; in that case, someone with the correct accent should be used.
shareI think the criticism is a bit silly. Who after all is to say what an 'ethnic accent' really is anyway. People who speak English as a second language will have varying degrees of fluency. As it happens I am rewatching The World at War and some of those old Germans had impeccable British accents. Others tho were barely intelligible. And that situation is no different today.
As for this being Anglo centric, that is absurd. In fact the programme spent an entire episode looking at the African theatre. Ludicrous given the relative importance and death toll compared to the Western front. And some of the other areas covered, such as the situation in Ireland, were also overdone. Not a problem in a long running series, but when there are only 10 episodes, taking diversions into these minor events simply to be able to say they covered the conflict as a World War, demeans the scale and significance of what was happening on the Western Front particularly.