A couple of days ago I wrote we are rewatching two TV miniseries made in the 1980s about World War II, based on two books written by Herman Wouk: The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. We finished the first series with episode 7 last night. In spite of having seen it repeatedly, we saw something we'd never noticed before.
Some nineteen months ago I wrote about watching another miniseries on PBS called Atlantic Crossing about Norwegian Crown Princess Martha and her interactions with FDR. This time when we watched Winds we noticed that Princess Martha was seated at the dining table adjacent to FDR and in passing a reference was made to her as "the princess." The stereotypical blond beauty portraying Martha in Winds didn't have a speaking role, plus the real-life Martha had dark hair and was less glamorous.
Tonight we begin War and Remembrance, all 12 episodes of it. We will finish after Christmas. When new, the two series were shown 3 years apart. Watched this way, with essentially no interruption between the two series, the fact they had to recast some key parts becomes more obvious. I'll have a note about those changes in a day or two.
