Colditz

I saw Colditz when it first came out and much enjoyed seeing it again nearly fifty years later. There are no bad episodes, at the time of writing none are rated lower than 7.8. But there are very few reviews and I'm surprised more people don't seek out quality classic stuff rather than settle for the dreary rubbish now served up on tv.

Of the episodes I'd rate 10, Tweedledum is best loved, three reviews of it have said all that can usefully be said. In Ace in The Hole a new inmate, highly decorated RAF officer Tony Shaw (Jeremy Kemp) is polite but somewhat aloof, showing little interest in escaping. This is the most thoughtful episode, Shaw's riveting verbal dual with Major Mohn about the nature of military accomplishment is the best five minutes dialogue in the series. Among strong competition my favourite is The Gambler, in which Ray Barrett plays a ruthlessly amoral card sharp, by a country mile the most dislikeable prisoner.

I would have liked to have seen more of one or two interesting characters who appeared just once. Such as Major Schaeffer (Michael Gough) in Maximum Security, whose alcohol fuelled distain for the Third Reich would have made the perfect foil for Mohn. A couple of the regulars I suspect were there primarily for their looks, no names no pack drill as they say in the army.

Some strange and uniformed comments/criticisms about this excellent series.

One says that was a 'goof' to show prisoners in 'dress uniforms'. A brief search for photos of Colditz prisoners online will show that all POW officers possessed proper uniforms, as under the Geneva Convention these could be requested via the Red Cross. It would have been an unlikely mistake, as Pat Reid was an adviser on the series.

Another says that there were no Americans in Colditz. There were in fact three Americans: Colonel Florimond Duke, Captain Guy Nunn, and Alfred Suarez.

Some liberties were clearly taken for dramatic effect. For example, the famous 'Tea Chest' escape is featured. David McCallum's character, Simon Carter was based on the real Tea Chest escaper, 'The Medium Sized Man' aka Fl Lt Dominic Bruce OBE MC AFM KSG (Wikipedia has a very comprehensive biography, well worth a read) who did not deliberately give himself up as Carter does, but was only caught weeks later in Danzig.

For the most part, this series gives a fairly accurate portrayal of the struggle between the inveterate escapers (you were only put in Colditz if you had escaped from somewhere else, and got caught) and the well trained German security officers.

"Colditz" was shown here in Finland as a rerun in 1997-98. It was based on the books "Colditz and the Latter Days" by Pat Reid which tell the story of a group of Allied POWs who have been sent to the most heavily guarded prison camp in Germany.

The series was so good that I did not miss a single show of it, I also bought the books on Colditz written by Reinhold Eggers (known as Ullmann in the series) and Pat Reid.

The series show how the POWs had to live in Colditz, a few went insane some died while trying to escape and some made a succesful escape. The series is among the best when it comes to drama.

This outstanding series is the kind of psychological drama at which the British excell. Set almost entirely within a reconstruction of the now-famous castle-fortress prisoner-of-war camp during WWII, there is little in the way of physical action. Instead we're treated to some of the best form of "mind games" and psychological manoeuvring and competition you can hope to see on TV, as the two sides constantly strive to get one over on the other. The Allied prisoners are determined not to be beaten mentally by their surroundings and look for every possible means of escape, while the Germans are always on their toes, looking for clues about possible break-outs and ways in which the Allied prisoners are trying to outsmart them. I couldn't tear myself away from the series when it first came out in Britain, and I was pleased to see how little it had aged when it was reshown on the History Channel a couple of years ago. Excellent acting and strong story lines make this a must-see for me. Out of 10, I'd rank it about 13.6!!

I watched this on T.V. as a Kid, IN PARTICULAR i liked the character played by Bernard Hepton as the commandant and can remember as if it was yesterday this unique part, right down to the frequent clearing of the throat and his general manner, i can never recall missing an episode and used to look forward to it being screened every week, needless to say i was very disappointed when the Series came to an end and would love to own the whole series, Anyone out there know if this was ever released on Video or D.V.D. and if so where it can be obtained OR WHEN IT MAY BE RE-SCREENED IN THE FUTURE ?

Please let me know if any one notices it popping up on the History Channel again in the future, Gary@ichthus88.force9.co.uk, Thanks in advance Cheers - Gary