Season 1 • Episode 3
LatestThe last hours of peace. With the continental powers pushed to the brink, Sir Edward Grey seems unsure of whether to keep Britain out of the conflict. Desperate negotiations, resignations and a battle of wills in the Cabinet reach a crescendo with Germany's ultimatum to Belgium. Which way will Britain go?
This three-part political thriller follows the catastrophic chain of events leading up to World War I from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 to Britain's declaration of war on Germany 37 days later. This tense and gripping miniseries set among the corridors of power in Whitehall and Berlin tracks the unfolding crisis through the eyes of leading politicians and civil servants struggling to prevent the world's first global war. 37 Days unlocks the mystery of the war s origins, overturning assumptions about its inevitability, demonstrating that World War One was neither a chance happening nor was it a foregone conclusion.
Acting
Schütz's Moltke unravels with terrifying restraint.
Writing
Dialogue sharp enough to cut through diplomatic fog.
Production
Cabinet rooms feel claustrophobic, Europe feels enormous.
Bernhard Schütz
Helmuth Moltke
Mark Lewis Jones
David Lloyd George
Nicholas Asbury
Winston Churchill
Urs Remond
Prince Lichnowsky
Oliver Ford Davies
Cunliffe
Ian Beattie
Tsar Nicholas II
Rainer Sellien
Kaiser Wilhelm
Ian McDiarmid
Sir Edward Grey
Kenneth Cranham
John Burns
Tim Pigott-Smith
Herbert Henry Asquith
Sinéad Cusack
Margot Asquith
Bill Paterson
Lord Morley
Nicholas Farrell
Eyre Crowe
Ludger Pistor
Bethmann-Hollweg
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The production filmed in the actual Foreign Office rooms where these decisions were made. The furniture creaks with authentic dread.
The series deliberately echoes The Thick of It and Yes Minister in its bureaucratic chaos, then twists the knife when you remember nobody fixes this.
GB
