The narration, spoken by Michael Redgrave, was written by Jennings and E. M. Forster and is an account of the progress of the war during the first six months of the life of a baby named Timothy.

Dame Myra Hess is featured giving a concert at the National Gallery in London, several years after her appearance in Listen to Britain (1942), and John Gielgud performs as the Prince in the gravediggers scene from Hamlet.

Though this record of old unhappy, not-so-far-off things is interesting, it sometimes tends to jump about rather too rapidly from one happening to another, and so may prove rather difficult for Timothy and his contemporaries to follow, when they are old enough to see it, as presumably they are meant to do.

"[5] Leslie Halliwell gave the film 4/4 stars, writing: "Brilliant sentimental documentary, a summing up of the aims and feelings of Britain at the time.

"[6] In a 2000 documentary about Jennings made for Channel 4 television by Kevin MacDonald, it was revealed that the baby who was the subject of the film (Timothy James Jenkins) later moved to Brighton in the 1960s and became a mod before settling down to become a teacher; he died in November 2000.