Espresso Media International and war and aviation specialists Coleman TV have delivered two films made from restored archive that highlight the last days of WWII for Channel 4 and UKTV.

VE Day: Countdown to Peace has been made for UKTV Yesterday. The film chronicles the last seven days of WWII, leading up to the Victory of Europe announcement. With real testimony from survivors for possibly the last time, the film tracks the lesser known stories as well as the death of Hitler, liberation of concentration camps, and accidental RAF sinking of SS. Cap Arcona among other stories in the final week of killing.

The Channel 4 film focusses on the domestic stories of celebration and jubilation erupting after the announcements. VE Day In Colour: Britain’s Biggest Party uses fully colourised archive to bring the street parties and celebrations across the United Kingdom to life.

Directed by Eleanor Milton-White, the team at Coleman TV restored and colour-corrected masses of archive footage, gathered from private collections, home movies and archive houses for both films.

David Hooper, MD Espresso Media International said: We are proud to be associated with these astonishing and landmark VE DAY 75th anniversary stories and EP’ing these with Coleman TV and his hard-working team. Bringing these end of WWII celebrations to life in full colour has been an enormous archive resource with testimonials that resonate so strongly today. We are also very grateful for the support of Channel 4 and UKTV and their input into the distinctively separate films and are highly encouraged that the films have licensed in many other territories through Europe and the rest of the World.”

Nik Coleman (Chief Executive) –Coleman TV added: “It’s not without irony that we’ve delivered these films in our own lockdown, although not comparable to WWII, we have gone through our own battle against some incredibly old, delicate and precious footage to bring people’s memories to life. We have embraced the tight-knit teams of both companies involved while working on these concepts closely with Amy, and are very pleased and proud to have created two very different snapshots into a period of time that will soon be just memories of stories from the descendants.”

Staff Reporter

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