'' was a
BBC Television drama series created by
Gerard Glaister that ran for three series from
September 7 ,
1977 to
December 15 ,
1979 .
This
Second World War series was created and produced by
Gerard Glaister , a former
RAF pilot, and was based on real events. Made in the
United Kingdom , it was broadcast on
BBC1 and chronicled the history of a
Belgian Resistance Movement dedicated to returning
British airmen, usually having been shot down by the
Luftwaffe , back to their home country.
The series followed the timeline of the war as it impacted on the Belgian location - exterior scenes were filmed in the country, with the assistance of Belgian broadcaster BRT, leading to a feeling of authenticity. Other location filming took place in and around
London and the surrounding counties.
In the first series, the show was set in a
Brussels café (the ''Candide''), where the owner (Albert Foiret, played by
Bernard Hepton ) helps Lisa Colbert (otherwise known as "Yvette" and played by
Jan Francis ) hide the airmen and control the various members of the "Lifeline" organisation (based on the real-life Comète line) as they take the airmen across borders to safer countries (such as Spain). Their principal opponents were Ludwig Kessler (
Clifford Rose ), an officious
Sturmbannführer in the
SS , and the more laidback
Luftwaffe officer Major Erwin Brandt (
Michael Culver ). Flight Lieutenant John Curtis (
Christopher Neame ) is parachuted into Brussels to act as Lifeline's British liaison and is at first greeted with hostility and suspicion, with signs of a growing romantic tension between him and Lisa. Another storyline concerned Albert's affair with barmaid Monique Duchamps (
Angela Richards ) while his wife Andrée (
Eileen Page ) was bed-ridden. Other Lifeline operatives introduced in the first series were Natalie Chantrens (
Juliet Hammond-Hill ), a guide who also works at the Candide, farmer and wireless operator Alain Muny (
Ron Pember ) and Dr. Pascal Keldermans (
Valentine Dyall ) who takes charge of medical matters concerning the airmen with Lisa working undercover as a nurse at his surgery.
In the second series, Albert was rewarded by the British with a share in a more prominently-placed restaurant (also named the ''Candide''), and he takes over Lifeline when Lisa is killed. The new restaurant meant that the German officers frequented the establishment more regularly, allowing all the major characters to interact and increasing the dramatic tension. To capitalise on actress Angela Richards' singing talents, Monique performed regularly for the Candide diners and this became a staple feature of the series. Not only did these scenes transform the character of Monique from a dowdy waitress to a sultry chanteuse, but they also served as a sophisticated contrast to the often tense events occurring in the episodes. Other story arcs played out during the second series included Kessler's developing romance with lonely Belgian society woman Madeleine Duclos (
Hazel McBride ) and Brandt getting involved with a conspiracy to assassinate
Adolf Hitler , the discovery of which, together with the death of his family in an British air raid on
Berlin , results in his eventual suicide. This series also included a Communist resistance infiltrator of Lifeline (pianist Max Brocard, played by
Stephen Yardley ) whose death would lead to further complications in the third series.
For the third series, chronicling the period approaching and after the end of the war in Belgium, Bernard Hepton was unavailable for many episodes (as he was touring in a series of plays). Albert's absence was explained by his incarceration in prison, on false charges related to the series one death of his wife. Monique is forced to take charge of both Lifeline and the Candide in his absence in a story development that charted her increasing independence and the eventual decline of her relationship with Albert. Several episodes also focused around the character of Major Nick Bradley (
Paul Shelley ), an undercover British agent introduced in the second series. Brandt was replaced in this series by Major Reinhardt (
Terrence Hardiman ), a more incisive officer, who regularly clashed with Kessler but nevertheless came closer than ever to discovering Lifeline.
The final episode to be made, ''What did you do in the War, Daddy?'', set 25 years after the liberation of Brussels, looked at how the characters had fared after the war, but was never broadcast - the reason for this has been variously attributed to a strike (meaning that editing was never completed), the episode's anti-
Communist message, or because it was significantly different in tone from the rest of the series. The main themes of the episode were subsequently incorporated into a sequel series, ''
Kessler '', which was transmitted in
1981 and explored the fate of the former
Standartenführer .
.]]
.]].]]
The complete series of ''Secret Army'' is available on DVD (Region 2, U.K.) from DD Home Entertainment. All releases are accompanied by a booklet detailing the production of each successive series, while the series 3 release also features on-camera interviews with cast members Angela Richards (Monique), Clifford Rose (Kessler), Juliet Hammond-Hill (Natalie), Terrence Hardiman (Reinhardt) and Hazel McBride (Madeleine).
