D-Day: The Unheard Tapes

Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024, D-Day: The Unheard Tapes (w/t) relives one of the most extraordinary days in the history of modern warfare through the incredible preserved audiotapes of those who experienced the invasion first-hand.

From the team at Wall to Wall behind BAFTA-nominated documentary AIDS: The Unheard Tapes, the series is a co-production for BBC Two and iPlayer and The History Channel made in partnership with the Open University and Imperial War Museums.

On the 6th June 1944, around 156,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy in what would be the largest seaborne invasion in history, a critical event that would alter the outcome of the Second World War. At its epicentre were hundreds of thousands of young men and women, many of whose stories have remained untold until now.

The three-part documentary draws on a trove of original recorded interviews from British, American and German soldiers, and French witnesses, to tell the fateful story of D-Day as it was lived on the ground. The extraordinary spoken testimonies have been sourced from museums, university archives and private collections and include discoveries of material never previously digitised or heard publicly. They recall moments of bravery and fear, strategy, chaos, and split-second decision making, their memories taking us through the invasion as it unfolded.

Adopting an innovative new approach, the rich variety of first-person audio interviews will be given new life by a cast of young actors lip-syncing in documentary settings, combined with archival footage and immersive documentary-style recreation to tell the story of D-Day as it’s never been told before.