If you're familiar with Lesley Manville's exceptional performance in BBC crime drama, Sherwood, inspired by one of the largest manhunts to ever brace the nation, you might be surprised to know she has another drama that's even better. If you delve back through Manville’s legendary back catalogue, the two-time BAFTA-winner has more TV gold to enjoy, including her other outstanding BBC drama, World on Fire.
The series, which is written by multi-award winning writer, Peter Bowker, first aired in 2019 and tells the story of several ordinary people across Europe in the summer of 1939, when the outbreak of World War II forces them into unforeseen terror. Lesley plays Robina Chase, an upper middle-class woman who's widowed and the epitome of the very posh end of Manchester - but can the conflict change this cold and austere woman?
With the series now available to binge on Prime Video, here’s everything you need to know about World on Fire, including the plot, cast and how to watch it.
What is World on Fire about?
The series transports us back to the onslaught of World War II, introducing us to several characters spread across Europe, who are bound together by family ties, circumstance and romantic love as their lives are upended. Harry Chase, played by Jonah Hauer-King, is a charismatic translator who works at the British Embassy in Warsaw where he falls in love with a Polish waitress Kasia (Zofia Wichłacz), whose survival hangs in the balance as the Nazis enter Poland.
Harry must see if he can help save Kasia by aiding her escape but faces another dilemma – explaining the situation to Lois Bennett (Julia Brown), the lover he left behind in Manchester. We also meet Robina (Lesley Manville), is a cold, upper-class widow and single mother to Harry. As the continent erupts into flames, she's forced to gain a different perspective on life.
Meanwhile, Lois’s pacifist father, Douglas Bennett, played by Sean Bean, grapples with watching his children head to the frontline as his son Tom, (Ewan Mitchell), joins the navy and Lois, who works as a singer, is offered a life-changing opportunity. Over in Berlin, an American journalist called Nancy (Helen Hunt) risks it all to help her neighbours hide from the Nazi regime. In Paris, her nephew, a medic called Webster (Brian J. Smith) refuses to flee his city and the man he loves, a Jazz musician called Albert Fallou (Parker Sawyers).
Explaining how her character evolves over the course of the series, Lesley Manville told the BBC: "There is something quite frozen about Robina at the beginning of the series and then you get to see this woman who melts a bit and comes to some level of understanding about herself and how she’s conducted her life. The fact that Robina is quite emotionally repressed and finds anything to do with love and being tactile quite a challenge says a lot about where she has come from.
"It’s partly to do with her background, partly the class she belongs to and partly her upbringing and the time period. She’s quite a closed door and nothing gets in - in fact you get the impression that nothing much has ever got in. In that respect she’s quite an interesting person to get your acting chops around."
Who's in the cast of World on Fire?
The cast of World on Fire includes:
- Lesley Manville (Moonflower Murders) as Robina Chase
- Helen Hunt (Mad About You) as Nancy Campbell
- Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings) as Douglas Bennett
- Jonah Hauer-King (The Tattooist of Auschwitz) as Harry Chase
- Julia Brown (Daddy’s Head) as Lois Bennett
- Ewan Mitchell (Wuthering Heights) as Tom Bennett
- Zofia Wichłacz (Warsaw 44) as Kasia Tomaszeski
- Mateusz Więcławek(Strawman) as Grzegorz Tomaszeski
- Brian J. Smith (The War Boys) as Webster O’Connor
- Parker Sawyers (Southside With You) as Albert Fallou
- Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners) as Stan Raddings
- Eugénie Derouand (The Advent Calendar) as Henriette Guilbert
Is there a trailer for World on Fire?
Yes, you can watch the trailer for World on Fire below.
Is World on Fire any good?
Yes – it's a beautiful, fascinating and heartfelt story of the effects that war has on everyday people. Lesley Manville is fantastic in it, as are the likes of Sean Bean and Helen Hunt. The series has earned huge praise from fans who have called it "powerful", "deeply haunting" and "a masterpiece".
How can I watch World on Fire?
You can stream World on Fire series one and two now on Prime Video.
What other period dramas can I watch now?
If you love a drama steeped in history, you'll enjoy Jodie Comer’s The White Princess, which centres around the marriage of Henry VII (Jacob Collins-Levy) and Elizabeth of York (Jodie Comer), which brought the houses of Lancaster and York together, bringing an end to the War of the Roses. You can watch The White Princess now on Channel 4. We'd also recommend ITV’s Victorian sci-fi drama, The Nevers. The series follows a group of London women known as “the Touched” who have supernatural abilities and live on the periphery of society, until an exploitative aristocrat, Hugo Swann (Norton), takes a shining to them. The Nevers is available to watch now on ITVX.
