War and Peace (1972 TV series)

War and Peace
DVD cover
Genre	Historical drama
Created by	David Conroy
Based on	War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Written by	Jack Pulman
Directed by	John Davies
Starring	Anthony Hopkins Alan Dobie Morag Hood Angela Down
Theme music composer	Alexei Lvov
Country of origin	United Kingdom, Yugoslavia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	20
Production
Producer	David Conroy
Production locations	UK: Kedleston Hall Black Park Luton Hoo Ragley Hall Doddington Hall, Lincolnshire Wrest Park Yugoslavia: Bela Crkva Novi Sad Zlatibor
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	44–45 minutes per episode 14 hours 50 minutes total
Production companies	BBC Time Life Television Yugoslav Films Belgrade
Original release
Network	BBC2
Release	30 September 1972 (1972-09-30) – 8 February 1973 (1973-02-08)
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War and Peace is a British television dramatisation of the 1869 Leo Tolstoy novel War and Peace. This 20-episode series began on 28 September 1972. The BBC dramatisation of Tolstoy's epic story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Anthony Hopkins heads the cast as Pierre Bezukhov, Morag Hood is Natasha Rostova, Alan Dobie is Andrei Bolkonsky and David Swift is Napoleon, whose decision to invade Russia in 1812 has far-reaching consequences for each of them and their families.

The twenty-part serial was produced by David Conroy and directed by John Davies. Conroy's aim was to transfer the characters and plot from Tolstoy's novel to television drama to run for a duration of 15 hours. Scripted by Jack Pulman, this version of War and Peace contained battle sequences, which were filmed in Yugoslavia. The theme tune is the Russian imperial anthem, played by the band of the Welsh Guards.^[1]

Hopkins received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance, and the production designer Don Homfray won a BAFTA for his work on the series.^[2]