TV review: D-Day: The Last Heroes

That said, could the nation not have waited another year until the 70th anniversary, rather than the 69th, to splash out on this elaborate all-singing documentary on the two years of planning that went into that single day of action on June 6, 1944?

If two hours over two nights is devoted to this sundry milestone, watch out for a full-scale onslaught come this time next year.

The eager-featured Dan Snow was at the helm, seen going into 'battle' in combat fatigues on a night-time training exercise and looking majestic atop a tank being driven across a Normandy field.

The programme tried to bring something new to a story that countless documentaries have probed over the years and, in content, it largely succeeded. The focus was on the incredible levels of planning and analysis that went into preparing Operation Overlord, including the use of millions of 3D aerial photographs of northern Europe.

These were taken by Spitfires, armed not with bombs but cameras, during special reconnaissance missions. The results were viewed back home on stereoscopes, devices for looking at a pair of separate images, depicting left and right-eye views of the same scene as a single image.

One of the photo interpreters employed to scan these images hour after hour, day after day, described how they gave him and his colleagues the lie of the land and a clue as to what they were looking at. "You became hooked on it in the way you would a cryptic crossword."

The programme showed how planning for D-Day started in August 1942 when the Allies launched a raid on Dieppe in northern France. Out of the 6,000 men who took part, more than 4,000 were killed, wounded or missing.

"Why attack a well-defended port?" asked Jimmy Rimmer, a Canadian serviceman who was so traumatised by the assault that he has blanked it from his memory.

It was a bitter but timely lesson, which led to the Spitfire spying trips and the 3D pictures of miles of beaches from Norway to Spain plotting all the German fortifications and seeking a chink in the line.

On style, the documentary was a little formulaic – a Sgt Snow explanation, followed by a re-enactment cutting to actual footage, and interview snippets from D-Day veterans, back to Sgt Snow again and another scenario.

The stars of the show undoubtedly were British vets Fred Walker and Roy Cadman, dressed in their smart red Chelsea Pensioner uniforms, who told it like it was in that masterfully understated British way. What did they think of Hitler? "He was a bit of a rascal," said Roy.

This was in contrast to their American counterparts, whose accounts were detailed and thoughtful. And it was in complete contrast to action man Dan's style of delivery.

"It took elite troops to carry out this attack," he enthused. Cut to clip of Cockney Roy musing to camera: "Wha'ever they slung at us, we'd do." Priceless.

Continues tonight at 9pm.

Marion Brennan