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Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

This month saw the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and here in the UK, the issue of how we commemorate it, along with other pivotal moments from the Second World War, has become

something of a talking point. Matt Elton caught up with Alec Ryeh, history professor at Durham

University, and author of an upcoming book on the subject, to talk about why the conflict

continues to be such a key moment in British culture. D-Day, and the way it's

remembered today in the 21st century, has been in the headlines in recent weeks. It seemed like a

good opportunity to explore why the Second World War holds such weight in the national psyche.

Why do you think that is? It seems to me that the Second World War has become our kind of central, sacred national narrative.

It's the event that we've defined ourselves by, I mean, we still call it the post-war era.

For all of my lifetime, and before that, it's been the one point to which we've turned.

And it's not only in Britain. This works similarly in a lot of countries, but we maybe have

a particularly severe case of this Second World War obsession. And it's partly because it was a

huge event, a cataclysmic event in the history of the

world, decisive turning point in the history of this country. So it's not unreasonable that it

should leave that sort of legacy to it. But I think there's something deeper to it than that,

...