Sworn to Secrecy

Last updated

Sworn To Secrecy: Secrets of War (aka Secrets of War) is a 65-hour documentary television series about military history and the secrets of war of the 20th century. [1] It is edited as 65 episodes. The series premiered on the History Channel in September 1998 where it prevailed in the 8 o'clock Sunday evening slot for over two years. The series was co-created by Supervising Producers John Corry and Chip Proser. Alan Beattie and Chris Chesser served as Executive Producers. Original musical score composed and conducted by Ramón Balcázar.

Narrated by Charlton Heston, the series details facts and information derived from rare archival footage, formerly classified documents and messages, coupled with interviews with experts, authors and eyewitnesses from all over the world.

Production notes

The series was originally conceived as a 26-hour production. The first 13 hours concentrated on World War II, and the vast amount of unknown history kept secret by the British Official Secrets Act and finally revealed from 1975 to the 1990s. The second 13 hours focused on other conflicts of the 20th century. After the success of the first season, Documedia proceeded to expand the series comprehensively to address other wars, battles and intrigues, including many colour present-day shows on topics as diverse as chemical weapons and spy planes, and theme-oriented episodes like prisoners of war and code breakers.

The series interviewed key participants in all of the important conflicts of the 20th century, including prominent authors with unique perspectives of the clandestine aspects of war. The creators of Sworn To Secrecy worked with the top spies of the era: former Directors of the CIA James Woolsey, Richard Helms and Dr. James Schlesinger; former Chairmen of the KGB Generals Vladimir Semichastny and Alexander Shelepin (Russia); as well as former directors of the MOSSAD Meir Amit and Isser Harel.

As Sworn To Secrecy gained notoriety, other VIPs who usually avoided commenting on the topics explored by the series participated in this unique documentary production, including: Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, Dan Quayle, John H. Sununu, James A. Baker III, Jack Valenti, Howard K. Smith, John K. Singlaub, David Eisenhower, Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Senator John McCain. Each one-hour episode tells a strong, specific and factual story, backed up by interviews, rare footage, 3D graphics, on-location shooting, historical retracing shots and extensive reenactments.

Sworn To Secrecy is, among many documentary series of its kind, used in the classrooms of the United States Naval Academy and United States Air Force Academy, and the only military series that American Forces Network (formerly the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) licenses for American Service men and women on military bases and ships worldwide.

Related Research Articles

<i>The World at War</i> British television documentary series about the Second World War

The World at War is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. It was produced in 1973, at a cost of £900,000, the most expensive factual series ever produced. It was produced by Jeremy Isaacs, narrated by Laurence Olivier and included music composed by Carl Davis. The book, The World at War, published the same year, was written by Mark Arnold-Forster to accompany the TV series.

<i>Danger Man</i> British television series

Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts. Danger Man was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.

Nova is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, since 1974. It is broadcast on PBS in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries. The program has won many major television awards.

<i>The Civil War</i> (miniseries) 1990 documentary film series by Ken Burns

The Civil War is a 1990 American television documentary miniseries created by Ken Burns about the American Civil War. It was the first broadcast to air on PBS for five consecutive nights, from September 23 to 27, 1990.

Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp is an American action/adventure comedy series that originally aired Saturday mornings on ABC from September 12, 1970 to January 2, 1971 and rebroadcast the following season. The live-action film series featured a cast of chimpanzees given apparent speaking roles by overdubbing with human voices.

Robert Young Pelton is a Canadian-American author, journalist, and documentary film director. Pelton's work usually consists of conflict reporting and interviews with military and political figures in war zones.

<i>Hollywood</i> (British TV series) 1980 documentary series

Hollywood is a multi-BAFTA award winning 1980 documentary series produced by Thames Television which explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and their impact on 1920s culture. At the 1981 BAFTA television awards, it won Best Factual Series, Best Film Editing and Best Graphics.

A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment.

The Zircon affair was an incident in 1986 and 1987 caused by the planned broadcast on the BBC of a television programme about the ultimately cancelled Zircon signals intelligence satellite, as part of the six-part Secret Society series. It raised many important issues in the British constitution, particularly concerning parliamentary privilege and "gagging orders".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Bamford</span> American author, journalist and documentary producer

James Bamford is an American author, journalist and documentary producer noted for his writing about United States intelligence agencies, especially the National Security Agency (NSA). The New York Times has called him "the nation's premier journalist on the subject of the National Security Agency" and The New Yorker named him "the NSA's chief chronicler." Bamford has taught at the University of California, Berkeley as a distinguished visiting professor and has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper's, and many other publications. In 2006, he won the National Magazine Award for Reporting for his writing on the war in Iraq published in Rolling Stone. He is also an Emmy nominated documentary producer for PBS and spent a decade as the Washington investigative producer for ABC's World News Tonight. In 2015 he became the national security columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and he also writes for The New Republic. His book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, became a New York Times bestseller and was named by The Washington Post as one of "The Best Books of the Year." It is the third in a trilogy by Bamford on the NSA, following The Puzzle Palace (1982) and Body of Secrets (2001), also New York Times bestsellers. His latest book is * Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahron Bregman</span> Former IDF member, Israeli political scientist

Ahron "Ronnie" Bregman is a UK-based political scientist of Israeli origin, as well as a writer and journalist, specialising on the Arab–Israeli conflict.

<i>The War</i> (miniseries) American television documentary miniseries

The War is a seven-part American television documentary miniseries about World War II from the perspective of the United States. The program was directed by American filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, written by Geoffrey Ward, and narrated primarily by Keith David. It premiered on September 23, 2007. The world premiere of the series took place at the Palace Theater in Luverne, Minnesota, one of the towns featured in the documentary. It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Peter Taylor, is a British journalist and documentary-maker. He is best known for his coverage of the political and armed conflict in Northern Ireland, widely known as the Troubles, and for his investigation of Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism in the wake of 9/11. He also covers the issue of smoking and health and the politics of tobacco for which he was awarded the WHO Gold Medal for Services to Public Health. He has written books and researched, written and presented television documentaries over a period of more than forty years. In 2014, Taylor was awarded both a Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award and a BAFTA special award.

Erik Durschmied is a cinematographer, producer, director and also an author, military history professor and a former war correspondent for BBC, CBS. Newsweek called him a "supremely gifted reporter who has changed the media he works in", while The New York Times wrote "He has seen more wars than any living general." Durschmied is best known for his book The Hinge Factor. For the sum of his literary work, he received the honorary citizenship of Austria.

<i>Battlefield</i> (American TV series) British TV series or program

Battlefield is a British-produced series by Lamancha Productions in Edinburgh, UK which first debuted on the American PBS channel in 1994. The series explored battles fought during the Second World War and the Vietnam War. The series employed a novel approach in which history is described by detailed accounts of major battles together with background and contextual information. The sixth and final series of the program was broadcast in 2002.

<i>Reaching for the Skies</i> British TV series or program

Reaching for the Skies was an aviation documentary TV series made by BBC Pebble Mill in association with CBS Fox. The first episode was transmitted in the United Kingdom on 12 September 1988 and in the US in 1989.

<i>BBC Wildlife Specials</i> British TV series or program

The BBC Wildlife Specials are a series of nature documentary programmes commissioned by BBC Television. The series premiered in 1995, and 22 specials have been produced to date, with most of the more recent ones consisting of multiple episodes. The earlier programmes were produced in-house by the BBC's Natural History Unit, but the more recent Spy in the ... titles were made by the independent John Downer Productions. The first 18 specials, through 2008, were narrated by David Attenborough. Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice (2010), Penguins: Spy in the Huddle (2013) and Dolphins: Spy in the Pod (2014) were narrated by David Tennant.

<i>Thats Tough</i> Television series

That's Tough is an American documentary television series on G4. It was based on a concept by executive producers Adam Cohen, Cara Tapper, and Joanna Vernetti. There were no hosts attached to the show and it was produced by Super Delicious Productions. Filming was based in Santa Monica, California and eight episodes have been ordered for the first season. The series premiered on October 20, 2010 with all new episodes that aired every Wednesday at 8:30 pm until the season finale on December 8, 2010.

Exposure is a current affairs strand, broadcast in the United Kingdom on the ITV network. The programme comprises long-form films, investigating and exploring domestic and foreign topics. Episodes are produced both by independent production companies and in-house by ITV Studios. The average budget for a single edition is between £150,000 and £200,000.

<i>The Vietnam War</i> (TV series) 2017 documentary television series

The Vietnam War is a 10-part American television documentary series about the Vietnam War written by Geoffrey C. Ward and directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The first episode premiered on PBS on September 17, 2017. The script is by Geoffrey Ward, and the series is narrated by Peter Coyote. This series is one of the few PBS series to carry a TV-MA rating.

References

  1. "Sworn to Secrecy: Secrets of War (TV Series 1998)", Internet Movie Database, webpage: IMDb-764.