S1, E1: The series starts with that great paradox. How could the settlement at the end of World War One – the “war to end all wars” – lead to an even greater conflict just a few years later? The answer is a tale with terrible resonance today. This film shows how the Great Depression sapped the will of the emocracies of the West to face up to a new and disturbing political phenomenon – the rise of militaristic dictators, in Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain. The result was that the major powers ignored all the warning signs and allowed the likes of Mussolini and above all Hitler to begin the course that would lead the world into catastrophe. The programme ends as Hitler plots his attack upon Poland.