But, over all, it used its narrative freedom wisely and creatively. From the start, the 'five friends' set-up was way too chocolate-box. Yes, there were moments when I thought: 'Well, that just wouldn't have happened.' Especially when the surviving friends just happen to turn up at exactly the same time at the bar where they partied four years previously. And still we could not bring ourselves to hate her. Likewise Charly, the volunteer nurse who betrayed a Jewish colleague at the earliest opportunity. The moral collapse of Nazi officer Wilhelm Winter (the Don Draper of the piece) was brilliantly captured: it's rare for an audience not to know how to respond to a character but there was a fantastic ambiguity to his downfall.

But I also thought it was one of the most interesting and moving things I have seen on television in a while: superbly acted, gripping and challenging. The strange thing for me is that I agree with most of the criticisms of Generation War. Martha Kearney, presenting Saturday's night's postmortem panel show, used the words 'five hours of self-pity'. The Spectator dismissed it as 'cheesy hackwork'. When, in November 2013, plans were announced to air the series here, Polish protesters gathered outside the BBC under the slogan: 'Stop Nazi Propaganda.' They were incensed by the depiction of Polish partisans as antisemitic. Several leading historians criticised the drama for showing 'all Germans as victims' and for failing to depict the powerful ideology of the period.

The initial response that it was brave and original soon turned into accusations of being overly sympathetic to the Nazis. Labelled 'Germany's Band of Brothers', no television programme has ever caused as much debate in German society. More than seven million Germans tuned into the second world war mini-series, Generation War (originally in German, Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter – Our Mothers, Our Fathers). But did it take too many liberties? And does that matter? There's no question that this was a fictional portrayal. Does drama have to be an accurate depiction of history? Generation War, the third part of which concluded on Saturday night, took a Mauser C96 to this question and shot it in the head, while murmuring a Marlene Dietrich song through painted lips.

Unsere mutter unsere vater 2013