Danger UXB

Speaking of WWII (which we weren't, but pretend we were) Danger UXB is a 13 episode series from 1979 starring Anthony Andrews, about London's Royal Engineers' UXB unit, the soldiers responsible for finding, disarming and disposing of unexploded bombs dropped in air raids during WWII.

It's very interesting but also very stressful to watch (fitting considering what the characters spend half their time doing) and it doesn't spend any time reassuring the viewer or letting you feel secure in expecting any characters to survive-I spent a lot of it figuring they'd just kill Andrews at the end because it liked to break your heart that way-and uses silence and the absense of much of a soundtrack almost disturbingly well.  I went in expecting it to be a bit like Foyle's War in showing everyday life during the war, but aside from a few of the soldier's personal relationships, there isn't much of that, and I actually surprised myself a bit by being considerably more interested in the military details and bomb information than the rest.
 

It's not for the faint of heart (I had to watch it in small doses because, SO STRESSFUL-lot's of "don't get blown up you're going to get blown up aren't you no camera don't pan away I know that's your code for blowing things up ok he didn't get blown up oh wait now someone is getting blown up..." on my end.) but definately interesting and a bit different from most of the other fiction about WWII that I've encountered.

BTW, speaking of Foyle's War, there will be a new series in 2013.  Which I am very excited about even though I have no clue what they'll do or if they'll even have any of the regular cast besides Michael Kitchen back after the end of the last series.