The narrator was Michael Redgrave, with readings by Marius Goring, Ralph Richardson, Cyril Luckham, Sebastian Shaw and Emlyn Williams.

[1] Those who appeared in the series included Edward Spears,[2] Henry Williamson,[3] Horace Birks,[4] Benjamin Muse,[5] Melvin Krulewitch,[6] George Langley,[7] Keith Officer, Douglas Wimberley,[8] Charles Carrington,[9] Egbert Cadbury,[10] Euan Rabagliati,[11] Robert Cotton Money,[12] Richard Talbot Kelly,[13] Norman Demuth, Walter Greenwood and Cecil Arthur Lewis.

[16] Others who were interviewed by the BBC but not featured in the series included Norman MacMillan,[17] Mabel Lethbridge,[18] Edgar von Spiegel,[19] Edmund Blunden,[20] Martin Niemöller,[21] John Shea,[22] Hans Howaldt,[23] William Ibbett,[24] Marthe Bibesco,[25] Philip Joubert de la Ferté[26] and Eric Dorman O'Gowan.

[30][nb 1] This title sequence was set against the series theme music, composed by Wilfred Josephs and performed by the BBC Northern Orchestra.

In August 2007, Guardian columnist Ian Jack remembered how at the start of each episode Josephs' "ominous music ushered the audience into the trenches".

[35] Following transmission of the series by the Republic of Ireland's national TV station, Telefís Éireann, The Great War won a Jacob's Award at the 1964 presentation ceremony in Dublin.