to give or to keep: ‘The World at War’ on blu-ray

Until I run out of cool giftable stuff to tell you about or until we run out of days till Christmas, I’ll be sharing some neat-o things that your geeky pals might enjoy, or that you might want to give to yourself, if you’ve been especially good this year.

Students of history and World War II buffs will love this new blu-ray edition of the classic 1970s ITV documentary that looked back at the war in obsessive detail using tons of footage from the era as well as interviews with participants and high-ranking eyewitnesses: Albert Speer, Jimmy Stewart, Alger Hiss, Curtis LeMay, aides to Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler, and many more. I’ve never seen this series, but the British Film Institute ranked in No. 19 in its 2000 list of the 100 greatest British Ttlevision programs ever, and it’s still considered the definitive TV documentary series on the war.

This set includes all 26 episodes plus making-of and restrospective documentaries, including a look at how the 1080p restoration and new 5.1 DTS-HD audio tracks were created.

If the whole series is as awesome as this little bit looks (and this clip isn’t even from the blu-ray), I’m gonna have to make time to watch it all: