Historical Contextual Research
World War 2 started on the 1st of September 1939 when Germany Invaded Poland, two days later on the 3rd of September 1939 The prime minister at the time Neville Chamberlain announced through the BBC radio that the United Kingdom would be going to war with Nazi Germany when they failed to withdraw there troops from Poland after being warned by Britain and France. At the end of World War 1 the Germans agreed to the “Treaty of Versailles” (the national archives, 2019) which was a treaty that formally ended World War 1 and put harsh terms on Germany including them taking full accountability for world war 1 other wise known as the “war guilt clause”, territorial losses including 10% European territory and all of its overseas colonies and significant reparations meaning that they had to a substantial amount for damages caused by the War.
There are historians that disagree about the reason why world war happened. Some believe that it is due to the anger created towards Germany after world war 1 which is why the ‘”Treaty of Versailles” was created 4 years after the end of World War 1. While some historians believe that its was Hitlers aggression that started WW2 however many others believe that it was down to world leaders, including Neville Chamberlain for being too weak. In 1938, Chamberlain introduced a settlement called the Munich agreement
The war then went on for 6 years until it finally ended on the second of September 1945 after the Germans finally withdrew from the war and surrendered after Hitler committed suicide.
IWM,
Horrible Histories episodes feedback-
I think that we should take the humorous and funny (comedic relief) take of the episodes whilst also trying to keep it as realistic as possible to help engage the audience watching the episodes. I think that we should make use of the dark contrast/ natural lighting as the use of electrics was not as common during ww2.
Vera Lynn
Vera Lynn was born on the 20th of March 1917, in East Ham, London. She was known for her wartime songs such as “we’ll meet again”, “the white cliffs of Dover”, “as time goes by” and many more. Vera was born into a middle class family in East Ham, she started out singing in men’s clubs by the age of seven and by eleven she joined Madame Harris’s Kracker kabaret kids which was a singing troupe. At age 14 vera left school and was spotted by a talent agent who then booked work for her at parties and events. When she was 18 in 1935 she sang the refrain and also started singing on the radio with the Joe Loss orchestra and then the casino club Band.
During ww2 performers such Vera Lynn would go round visiting troops to perform for them and raise there spirits, more specifically Vera Lynn visited a ammunition factory to perform a lunchtime concert in 1941, she would also do tours to several oversee theatres.
Churchill Propaganda and the Film Industry
During ww2 going to the cinema became and incredibly popular form of entertainment and pastime, between 25 and 30 millions cinema tickets were sold in Britain.The epic American film ‘Gone with the Wind released in 1940 was the smash hit of the war, but British films such as ‘In which we serve’ realised in 1942 and ‘Millions like us’ released in 1943 were also highly successful.
The performing Arts Industry during the War
In 1939 Sound City Film Studios now known as Shepperton, a man called Colonel John Turner was put in charge of constructing an elaborate network of dummy airfields and hundreds of decoy sites.(BBC News, 2013) These fake airfields and decoy sites were known as “starfish” and were always located near a potential bombing target of the Luftwaffe. The Germans would use path finders who would go ahead of the bombers and drop incendiary flares into the target sites, these target flares would get extinguished as soon as possible by men on the ground, while the fake airfield would be lit up via wires in the ground by the men nearby. This would give the appearance that they were already under attack and serve as a diversion as the German bombers would then bomb the fake site instead of the real one. These decoys were meant to look realistic enough for the Germans to fall for it so they even created dummy weapons, buildings, barges, tankers, aircraft and even dummy people they were made using canvas and wood which were then camouflaged.
Local builders would be hired and sent to Sound City film studious on a two week training cause to learn how to work the lights. They cleverly used lights to create the effect of an attack already happening, wielding and even the sparks coming off of tracks in areas where trams were in use.
National News and Events
Local news/ WW2 in Bradford and West Yorkshire
Bradford suffered its biggest air raid attack from the Luftwaffe during the early hours of the morning dropping 120 recorded bombs. This lead to one death and 100 recorded injuries, however the damage it causes was extensive, this included the Lingard’s Department store being destroyed, 10,000 windows were shattered and a audience that were in the Odeon cinema narrowly missed being bombed as a bomb landed in its stalls moments after its audience had left. Between August 1940 and March 1941 there were several smaller incidents in which fatalities did occur, more specifically on the 22nd of November 1940 a single bomb dropped was dropped on Hanson Lane, Halifax and killed 11 people. On the 14th of March 1941 6 more people fell victim to the bombs and lost there lives when 2 bombs were dropped, not only killing them but destroying many houses, in Idle 4 life’s were cut short when a German bomber crashed into a row of cottages and 5 died in Darington when a RAF plane accidentally crashed into there home and destroyed it.
Horrible and or funny angles (weird ration recipes etc)
Eden Camp
TV show research
TV Job Roles-
Bibliography
(the national archives, (2019) The Treaty of Versailles, Available from: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/the-treaty-of-versailles/ [accessed: 15/10/2025]
(BBC, (2023) World War Two; How Britain declared war against Germany, Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/49562683 [accessed: 15/10/2025]
(BBC, (2013) How the British film industry helped win World War II, Available from: How the British film industry helped win World War II – BBC News [accessed: 28/09/2025]