World in Action has been quietly earning a loyal audience, and right now it is all available in the UK on ITVX Premium. Every episode gives you a reason to keep going. What sets World in Action apart from the dozens of similar shows is hard to pin down in a single sentence — it is partly the writing, partly the performances, partly the way it commits to its premise without flinching. The kind of documentary that changes how you see things: that is the shorthand, but it undersells how well World in Action executes on it. An audience of 2 has voted with their time — and their score reflects a run without many weak episodes. The streaming access means you can form your own opinion tonight, without any barrier to entry.

Originally commissioned by ITV1, World in Action quickly became exactly the kind of show that viewers rearrange their evenings for. World in Action was Granada Television’s flagship ITV current affairs series, running from 7 Jan 1963 to 7 Dec 1998, and built a reputation for film-led investigative reporting and a forceful editorial stance. Its journalism produced major public and political repercussions—including investigations associated with miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six—and it also served as a platform for landmark documentary projects, including the first broadcast of “Seven Up!” as part of the strand in 1964. The series ran for 35 seasons (1963–1998), building a story that gave its audience time to invest properly. Documentary television at this level requires access that is hard to get and storytelling that does justice to it — World in Action has both. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Documentary fans who value serious journalism and strong storytelling will find World in Action essential — if Planet Earth III is on your list, move World in Action to the top. Not background viewing. The access the production gets is remarkable, and the storytelling does full justice to it — there is no sense of footage being stretched to fill episodes that have nothing new to say. 35 parts means the subject gets the depth it deserves, with room for context and counter-argument that shorter formats cannot accommodate. The kind of documentary that makes you feel informed rather than manipulated — a harder balance to strike than most documentary makers acknowledge.