Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years

I have been searching for a home viewing copy of this magnificent series since the advent of Betamax/VHS. This month, approaching my 77th year, I finally scored.

Having watched The Gathering Storm at the weekend I finally tried to find out what the name of the documentary - the signature tune of which has remained in my psyche since childhood in England. Thanks to the reviews above I now know it was The Valiant Years.

My father watched this whenever it was on (about 7.00pm ish - can't recall the weekday), and I watched it with him.

Television in the 1950s was full of WW2 documentaries. Growing up in that decade, I do not remember learning about most of the major events of that war for the first time--I saw so many of these documentaries that I always seemed to know them.

I saw this twice. Once when it was first released, then a few years later when a local station reran it.

I was only six years old at the time, and I had been to young to see VICTORY AT SEA back in the early 1950s. At the age of six, I had heard of Winston Churchill, and had seen pictures of him.

In 1960 I was nine. This was shown one night a week and it was a special occassion as it was the one schoolday night I was allowed to stay up to the ungodly hour of 11 p.

This is a first class documentary series made in the early 1960s, about 10 years ago this series was about to be released on DVD for the very first time ........ but for some reason it was withdrawn at the last moment........

I have of late read with some interest the comments and memories of those who have commented on the impression that "The Valiant Years" made on them. Now more than 40 years after first seeing it in TV in Canada as a child of about 8-9 years old, the impressions it made in my life are still very much alive and active.