Genre: Factual
Format: 6 x 60
Produced: in association with Discovery Channel Canada. Also produced in association with Access: The Education Station, Knowledge Network, Saskatchewan Communications Network, and TVOntario.
Distributed by: Breakthrough Entertainment Inc.
In the First World War – the Great War of 1914-1918 – the Canadian Corps had covered itself in glory and by 1918 gained a reputation as the fiercest, most deadly Allied fighting force on the Western Front.
A generation later, in the Second World War, the Canadians faced tasks demanding of all guts but offering little glory. Undaunted, they fought bravely, often desperately, in crucial but unglamorous campaigns – campaigns now largely forgotten.
As in the popular and critically acclaimed For King & Empire series, military historian Norm Christie takes us to the battlefields – on land, at sea and in the air. In For King & Country we will relive the Second World War and the exploits of a generation just now passing into history.
Over six one-hours, the series will provide an in-depth treatment of the Second World War from a Canadian point of view. Each episode will inform viewers about the major Canadian campaigns and engage in a critical analysis of how these campaigns marked major turning points in the war, and for Canada itself.
Canadian blood was spilt in all of these battlefields and in hundreds of others around the world. Everywhere are Canadian memories: of battles fought, of struggles lost and won. Everywhere are relics: burnt-out tanks, rusting aircraft, monuments, cemeteries and stories. Everywhere the dead lie forgotten, waiting to be remembered. For King & Country remembers the stories of these men and women – one of Canada’s greatest generations.
The series will take an intimate approach to telling soldiers’ stories. Norm Christie, joined by some of the men who fought, Canadian battlefields, monuments and cemeteries throughout the world. They guide us through the Second World War from the point of view of ordinary soldiers who tell their stories in their own words. Using a unique mixture of archival footage, photographs, artwork and actuality, the series will create a sense of what it was really like to fight “For King & Country.”
