Judging from the first episode, the Second World War is all about a young man torn between two girlfriends. Yes, right. Jonah Hauer-King plays that young man, but does not embody the demeanour or, especially, the mode of speech of the time. He speaks a student's London dialect of today, replete with glottal stops. A few moments viewing of any British film made in the 30s would have provided suitable models. It's not the only anachronism. Helen Hunt, playing the American journalist, presumably stipulated in her contract that she would not wear anything close to 1930s' makeup, hairstyle or clothing. (In fact she looks oddly like Penelope Keith in her prime.) She sends a radio report from Berlin back to the States, but afterwards asks her German neighbour if she heard the broadcast. I'm still wondering how that was supposed to have functioned. Perhaps it worked like the 1930s phone system, using which Jonah HK is able to chat to his mother on a crystal clear line from Poland back to England, just as war has broken out in September 1939. I'm almost surprised the script didn't have him using an iPhone for the purpose. This is sloppy stuff.
Review of World on Fire
