In 1905 the poet and philosopher George Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Since the end of the Second World
War, the 1939-45 conflict has been replayed hundreds of times, first in the
cinema and latterly on television, especially after war movies started to peter
out in the latter half of the 1960s.
Although traditional, essentially heroic or merely nostalgic versions of the
conflict, like the romantic We'll Meet Again (ITV, 1982), continue to be
screened, from the 1970s onwards a much more complex interpretation became
possible as the distance from the original events grew greater and viewers
became more sophisticated. This was certainly noticeable in a variety of
biographical dramas, such as the impressionistic Orde Wingate (BBC, 1976); Ian
Curteis' three-hour Churchill and the Generals (BBC, tx. 23/9/1979); Oppenheimer
(BBC, 1980), starring Sam Waterstone as the scientist who developed the
Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs; and Don Shaw's compelling Bomber Harris (BBC,
tx. 3/9/1989), with John Thaw as the man who ordered the RAF's fire bombing of
Dresden. Conversely, courting controversy didn't stop Mosley (Channel 4, 1998),
a lightweight biography of the British fascist leader, from being a critical and
ratings disappointment. Two fascinating portrayals of Adolf Hitler are
especially worth noting however: The Gangster Show (BBC, tx. 7/11/1972),
starring Nicol Williamson, taken from Brecht's 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo
Ui', and Frank Finlay's celebrated portrayal of the Fuhrer's last ten days in
The Death of Adolf Hitler (ITV, tx. 7/1/1973).
True events also inspired such vivid dramas as It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow
(ITV, tx. 8/10/1975), which recreated the events which caused hundreds to die when
panic broke out in Bethnal Green tube station during an air raid, and David
Pirie's Rainy Day Women (BBC, 10/4/1984), a fascinating dissection of a remote
rural community's descent into barbarity as a result of invasion fears. Also
fact-based was Jack Pulman's splendidly funny Private Schulz (BBC, 1981), which
unusually told its story from the perspective of the Germans.
The closest the Nazis actually came to reaching Britain was their occupation
of the Channel Islands from June 1940. One of the earliest depictions of this
was Terence Dudley's comedy 'A Piece of Resistance' (BBC, The Wednesday Play,
tx. 19/10/1966). Much more substantial was the true-life drama The Dame of Sark
(ITV, tx. 29/12/1976) starring Celia Johnson, while the pilot sitcom Owner
Occupied (ITV, 1977), starring Hannah Gordon, never developed into a series. The
most sustained dramatisation, however, remains Enemy at the Door (ITV, 1978-80),
an adroit look at the difficulties endured by the British islanders facing the
spectre of collaboration after the fall of France.
The war in France and the low countries inspired such works as Jean-Paul
Sartre's 'Men Without Shadows' (ITV, Television Playhouse, tx. 25/10/1957), Robert
Barr's Moonstrike (BBC, 1963) and the harrowing The White Rabbit (BBC, 1967),
starring Kenneth More as a real-life officer who, after being caught in France,
was tortured relentlessly by the Gestapo. Manhunt (ITV, 1970), Fair Stood the
Wind for France (BBC, 1981) - adapted from H.E. Bates' novel - and the popular
Wish Me Luck (ITV, 1988-90) all dealt with RAF men stuck behind enemy lines, as
did the hugely successful Secret Army (BBC, 1977-79), set in Belgium, which was
also notable for the prominent role women played in the stories.
Women in war have, when on rare occasion given prominence. either been
portrayed highly glamorously or extremely roughly. Good examples of the former
include The Camomile Lawn (Channel 4, 1992), the biopic The One and Only Phyllis
Dixey (ITV, 1/11/1978), with Lesley-Ann Down as the wartime stripper, and the
humorous transposition of the naughty 1940's strip (sic) cartoon Jane (BBC,
1982; Jane in the Desert, 1984). Interestingly, dramatisations of the plight of
women overseas have been much grittier, especially Tenko (BBC, 1981-84), set in
a Japanese PoW camp, which was a huge ratings winner. The peripatetic Fortunes
of War (BBC, 1987) followed its heroine from Bucharest to Egypt as she slowly
found an identity separate from that of her husband. The risible Jenny's War
(ITV, 1985) had Dyan Cannon as an American looking for her son behind enemy
lines, while Dennis Potter's considerably more impressive Christabel (BBC, 1988)
featured a fine performance from Liz Hurley as a British woman trying to track
down her German-born husband who has been arrested for sedition by the Nazi
authorities.
The British far away from home are a major theme in war dramas, whether it be
the prisoners in Colditz (BBC, 1972-74), or the British children who were sent
away from major cities to avoid Nazi bombing raids. Examples include Jack
Rosenthal's magnificent The Evacuees (BBC, 3/5/1975), Goodnight Mr Tom (ITV,
25/10/1998), starring John Thaw as the curmudgeonly title character, and two
adaptations of Nina Bawden's Carrie's War (BBC, 1974; 2004). The most formally
daring depiction of children during the conflict, however, remains Potter's classic Blue Remembered Hills (BBC, 30/1/1979), in which adult actors
play working-class boys and girls frolicking in the countryside.
While sagas of upper-class family life like The Camomile Lawn have been much
more common, John Finch's gargantuan 52-part serial A Family at War (ITV,
1970-72) bucked convention by being set in Liverpool and amongst working people,
as did Rosenthal's The Evacuees (based in Manchester and Blackpool) and his
adaptation of C.P. Taylor's And a Nightingale Sang (ITV, 17/4/1989) set in
Newcastle. The bomb disposal series Danger U.X.B. (ITV, 1979) remains most notable,
apart from its nail-biting suspense sequences, for its depiction of the trials
and tribulations of its lower-class sappers, who have come to work in London
from all over the British Isles.
Although recent war dramas such as The Cazalets (BBC, 2001), which had to be
left without an ending, and Uncle Adolf (ITV, 2005), with Ken Stott as Hitler,
have not fared well in the ratings, Anthony Horowitz's detective series Foyle's
War (ITV, 2002- ), set in Hastings, has been a major success and is undoubtedly
the most popular war series on British television for over a decade.
Sergio Angelini
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