History Series / WorldOnFire

''World on Fire'' is a 2019 Creator/{{BBC}} television series set across Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. The first season chronicles the first year of World War II, starting with the German invasion of Poland and continuing through the aftermath of the fall of France in June 1940. A second season has been announced [[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/world-on-fire-season-2-cast-slideshow/ with a US release date of October 15, 2023]]; it aired in the UK in July 2023.

* ActionPrologue: The first episode opens with Lois and Harry infiltrating a rally of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts. Harry gets beaten up, and they are both arrested.

* AllGermansAreNazis: Though people often use "German" and "Nazi" interchangeably, the series itself has many German characters who aren't Nazis. For instance most prominently is the Rossler family (technically Mr. Rossler is a Party member, but only to protect them with the influence it brings) who oppose the Nazis' (at least in part because their daughter has epilepsy and is at risk for involuntary "euthanasia", but they're revealed to have made a number of dissident comments later). Sieber, a German officer in the occupation of Paris, is also sympathetic. He shows veiled dislike of the Nazi policy on jazz music, and helps Webster when Albert is detained (it's also indicated Sieber knows they're gay, but doesn't share the Nazi's vicious anti-LGBT views).
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: A rather jaw-dropping instance of this between episodes 1.04. Gregorz and Konrad somehow manage to get from Poland to Belgium on foot, which would mean that they either managed to traverse the entirety of an extremely hostile and alert Germany without being caught, or somehow gained the ability to teleport.

* BadassInDistress: Kasia, who's slowly become a hardened Polish resistance fighter, nonetheless, gets captured when the Germans ambush her during another honey trap operation. She's captured and then sentenced to death. However, while being marched off to the gallows resistance fighters rescue her.

* BuryYourDisabled: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. The introduction of Aktion T4 leads to the mass murder of people with disabilities in Nazi Germany. [[spoiler:The Rosslers' daughter Hilda has epilepsy and her mother kills her and then herself in a MurderSuicide, that could be seen as a MercyKill.]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The fifth episode ends without revealing the fate of Tom and Gregorz, caught out in the open on the Dunkirk beach during a Stuka bombing run.

* MoreDakka: [[spoiler:In Episode 7, SS troops ambush Harry and Kasia's band of resistance fighters with an MG-34 light machine gun hidden in a truckbed.]]
* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:Mrs. Rossler kills Hilda and then herself.]]

* SecretPolice: The Gestapo investigate the Rosslers after Mr. Rossler killed a Nazi woman to protect his daughter, and interrogate them both harshly.

** And finally there's Grzegorz, who, after somehow slipping through a wormhole from Poland to Belgium, and being plucked off the beaches of Dunkirk, finds himself in a Yorkshire hospital for shell-shock patients.

* WouldHitAGirl:
** Mr. Rossler unhesitatingly kills a Nazi woman who threatened to out his daughter for being disabled, which might have got her killed. Given that, it's understandable.
** The Gestapo agent interrogating Mrs. Rossler shows no compunction at hitting or mistreating her.

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: Douglas Bennett dies in an air raid between Seasons 1 and 2]]

''World on Fire'' is a 2019 Creator/{{BBC}} television series set across Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. The first season chronicles the first year of World War II, starting with the German invasion of Poland and continuing through the aftermath of the fall of France in June 1940. A second season has been announced [[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/world-on-fire-season-2-cast-slideshow/ with a release date of October 15, 2023]].

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero:
** Stan, who's ''not'' pleased to be traveling to Dunkirk alongside a truckload of shell-shocked men and French-African soldiers.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Stan, who's ''not'' pleased to be traveling to Dunkirk alongside a truckload of shell-shocked men and French-African soldiers.

* TwoferTokenMinority: Albert is a black Frenchman, and he's gay as well.

''World on Fire'' is a 2019 Creator/{{BBC}} television series set across Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. The first season chronicles the first year of World War II, starting with the German invasion of Poland and continuing through the aftermath of the fall of France in June 1940. A second season has been announced [[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/world-on-fire-season-2-cast-slideshow/ with a release date of Octoboer 15, 2023]].

''World on Fire'' is a 2019 Creator/{{BBC}} television series set across Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. The first season chronicles the first year of World War II, starting with the German invasion of Poland and continuing through the aftermath of the fall of France in June 1940. A second season has been announced.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: A rather jaw-dropping instance of this between episodes 1-4. Gregorz and Konrad somehow manage to get from Poland to Belgium on foot, which would mean that they either managed to traverse the entirety of an extremely hostile and alert Germany without being caught, or somehow gained the ability to teleport.

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: The TropeMaker has just barely happened and this idea has already lodged in the English consciousness, as a bed-ridden Tom in episode 1-6 says he won't surrender "like you lot". Webster notes pointedly that it was a French ambulance that brought him back from the beaches of Dunkirk.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: When the hardcore Nazi woman in Herr Rossler's factory makes a threat about his epileptic daughter, Rossler bashes her skull in with an iron. Then he's shown taking a stiff drink before going to Nancy for help disposing the body.

* ItHasBeenAnHonor: After Harry gives Stan a direct order to head for the Dunkirk beach in episode 1-5, Stan says "Pleasure and an honor, sir" before departing.

* MatchCut: In episode 1-2, Kasia crumples down to the floor and embraces the corpse of her mother, shot through the forehead. Cut to Webster and Albert, spooning in bed.

* OminousFog: Episode 1-5 begins with Harry and his men emerging from thick fog on a lonely road somewhere near the coast. Their route is often fog-bound as they make the dangerous trek to Dunkirk on foot.

* OnePersonBirthdayParty: Kasia holds one in Warsaw for her youngest brother who is away with Harry's mother in England; she sings "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sto_lat Sto Lat]]" and blows out a lone candle on a single cupcake.

* SpitefulSpit: In episode 1-2 Kasia's mother spits at the German officer who has just entered her house. This gets her shot through the head. Later in that same episode Kasia is spitting in the soup that she's serving to German officers at the cafe.

* OnePersonBirthdayParty: Kasia holds one in Warsaw for her youngest brother who is away with Harry's mother in England; she sings "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sto_lat Sto Lat" and blows out a lone candle on a single cupcake.

** The Gestapo agent interrogating Mrs. Rossler's shows no compunction at hitting or mistreating her.

This series has has numerous characters. They include:

* Webster O'Connor, who's working as a doctor in Paris. Webster is gay, and has fallen in love with a Parisian saxophone player named Albert.

* IntrepidReporter: Nancy Campbell, an American who reports on the outbreak of the war. She is based on [[NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed real life]] journalist Clare Hollingsworth, who is credited with the first international report of the German invasion of Poland.

* SneezeOfDoom: It's not clear whether Grzegorz has TB or is just asthmatic, but either way he can't stop coughing. His cough at the worst possible time results in a German soldier finding the place where he and his buddy are hiding. They manage to escape again later.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: A rather jaw-dropping instance of this between episodes 1-4. Gregorz and Konrad somehow manage to get from Poland to Belgium on foot, which would mean that they either managed to traverse the entirety of an extremely hostile and alert Germany without being caught, or somehow gained the ability to [[Literature/HarryPotter apparate]].

* Harry Chase, a rich boy whose snooty mother Robina (Lesley Manville) disapproves. Harry is sent to Warsaw to work as a translator in the embassy. While still thinking about Lois, he falls in love with...

This series has has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. They include:

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: In Warsaw, the Germans execute civilians for resistance activity with little or no evidence and in the first episode Stefan is shot dead whilst holding up a white flag in surrender.

* TheSocialDarwinist: Dr. Voller defends killing disabled children when Nancy Campbell confronts him over it citing "natural selection" and necessary "progress" to stop hereditary diseases. When she retorts that progress means protecting the weak, he notes that many American and British intellectuals, including UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, [[NotSoDifferent also support eugenics]] but just don't have the stomach to take it this far. When she says that's no defense, he claims [[MercyKill it's merciful]] for them and objectors shouldn't try to stop it.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: A rather jaw-dropping instance of this between episodes 1-4. Grzegorz and Konrad somehow manage to get from Poland to Belgium on foot, which would mean they either managed to traverse the entirety of an extremely hostile and alert Germany without being caught, or somehow gained the ability to[[Literature/HarryPotter apparate]] hundreds of miles to wind up on the beaches of Dunkirk.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: A rather jaw-dropping instance of this in episode 1-4, when Grzegorz runs into a British tank unit. In Poland, in 1940. Or it may be that Grzegorz runs into the tanks in Belgium. Because in the next episode he has somehow teleported or [[Literature/HarryPotter Apparated]] hundreds of miles, across Germany, to wind up on the beaches of Dunkirk.

* MoreDakka: [[spoilers:In Episode 7, SS troops ambush Harry and Kasia's band of resistance fighters with an MG-34 light machine gun hidden in a truckbed.]]

* InterclassRomance: Upper-middle class Harry and [[YourCheatingHeart both]] his love interests: Lois is a factory worker as well as a [[TheChanteuse nightclub singer]], and Kasia is a waitress.

* YourCheatingHeart: Harry marries Kasia, but then has sex with Lois after he returns to England (which also gets her pregnant).

* BlackBestFriend: Connie to Lois.

* FighterLaunchingSequence: Episode 1-7 has a brief shot of British fighter planes taking off, presumably to take on the Luftwaffe, as it's summer 1940.

* JustInTime: Kasia is being led to the gallows in episode 1-7 when her Resistance comrades swoop in and rescue her.

* LastMinuteRescue:

* ContrivedCoincidence: The cast are so spread out across Europe that when they come into contact it can feel contrived. Examples include: [[spoiler:Kasia and Harry finding each other in Poland, Albert's coworker Eddie being the sweetheart of Lois's coworker Connie, Grzegorz and Tom both being at Dunkirk, and Webster treating Tom at the hospital in Paris.]]