The Vietnam War is getting a full broadcast on this side of the pond.
PBS America has announced plans to air the critically acclaimed PBS documentary series from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick in full (running some 18 hours). It will premiere on the channel on Wednesday nights from April 11th at 9pm.
The BBC did acquire and air a version of The Vietnam War on BBC Four last year, but that international edit ran a mere ten hours. As such, this marks the first time that the series has aired in its entirety here in the UK.
“Ken and I are thrilled that British audiences will be able to watch our full directors’ cut from this April”, Novcik said. “Nowhere outside of the US has this complete 18 hours been made available to television audiences before. The rest of the world has only had access to the 10 hour cutdown – a little over half the story – until now.”
The Vietnam War tells the story of that war as it has never before been told on film. It features testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides. The series brings the war and the chaotic epoch it encompassed viscerally to life. The project was some ten years in the making and performed very strongly state-side on PBS.
Check out the trailer below:
