Jeremy Paxman is a no-nonsense interviewer who has, in recent years, produced a series of sensible, trustworthy books about big British topics. The First World War is a divisive ­subject; you can see why the BBC might want to entrust its anniversary documentaries on the conflict to someone so reliable. That might make Britain’s Great War (27 January) sound dull, or safe; it’s neither of those. It’s lively, anecdotal, nicely illustrated from the archive, and quite bold in its attitudes. But it’s not subtle. It asserts, in Paxo’s best dogmatic manner, rather than argues. Complexities are avoided; no historians of any description appeared. There wasn’t time for that. The BBC has decided to tell the story of “the war that forged the country we kno