The Promise

The only thing I ever learnt about this period was from my RE teacher at school (well, we called it "Divinity" - it was that sort of school) who served in Palestine and missed the King David Hotel bomb by chance, and by minutes. Other than that... nothing. Even for the "small wars" of the British Empire, this is one of the most silent. Some hundreds of British troops died - and we know nothing about it.

What is more the Israel/Palestine dispute is on TV News all the time, even though 99% of us no absolutely nothing about the background.

Its interesting that there are disputes about its historical accuracy. Leaving aside the fact it is a drama, it does seem to be remarkably accurate. While watching it I was constantly checking - and the events this is based on actually happened.

Compelling, moving, educational, and yes controversial. But unmissable.

Astonishing is all I can say, I fail to find the words to describe this piece of work. Maybe being an Arab who's heart breaks in two every time he hears about his neighboring country and how they were left helpless to struggle and still are effects me more, maybe thats why the movie got to me so deeply. I wouldn't want to take the credit off the producer nor the cast or anyone who participated in this magnificent work good job. This is a must see series. People (ofcourse I know which sort of people) will start to take us into the small details of events and how the IDF does that and doesn't do that, I believe the picture is clear for those who have hearts and minds to see with.

I come from Palestine, when I started watching this mini-series, I was mentally prepared for the common western biased production of The Palestine cause, I am surprised at the end, that this was not only unbiased to any party, but also, shed more in my conscious on the British position, the Jews misery in Germany and later their perspective to occupy our lands and renaming our country. The drama was great, not a common Hollywood Bad Guys Vs.Good Guys BS. It gave me an urge to watch again and again and show it to my parents, relatives who are all refugees, a great and intelligent production, I strongly recommend it to anyone. If I was not Palestinian, or involved in this story, I still find a great story line, intelligent script and acting.

I have a thing about miniseries as much more can be put into 6-8hrs that can be packed into the 2hrs of a feature length story. IMO almost all of televisions greatest works are in mini-series such as 'Boys from the Black Stuff', Traffic' & 'Edge of Darkness'. Alan Bleasdale has always been the master of this format but, with 'The Promise', Peter Kosminsky joins him at the top. All 8hrs is used to maximum effect.

'The Promise' shows how Israel was born in violence & how the violence is maintained in the present day. Around this Kosminsky has drawn a gripping storyline of the granddaughter of a soldier in the British Protectorate searching out the mystery of her grandfathers story. Thus Erin, the granddaughter travels modern Israel while her grandfathers story shows late '40s Palestine & the birth of Israel.

If you want to understand the Middle East conflict then you can't do better than to watch this series.

Kosminsky has been accused of taking an anti-Jewish stance with this series but I cannot agree with this. The British & Israeli forces are everywhere and very prominent while the modern Palestinian terrorist is a small minority. This is how Kosminsky shows it and I believe that to have given more prominence to the Palestinian violence would have introduced a pro-Israeli bias.

I do not give 10/10 lightly but 'The Promise' has earnt it as absolute top quality viewing.

I had a personal interest in this for two reasons. My father served with the paras in Palestine (having joined up to fight the Germans) and I've had a long-term interest in what is now known as the 'IP' question. I have to say I was engrossed by the whole series, although there a few dramatic devices which were verging on the unbelievable. It might have worked better as a drama for those who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, in either era. I probably spent too much time worrying about the politics. My sympathies have always lain with the Palestinian side, and there were bits of it I thought were good for setting out a side to Israel that isn't always seen (eg the attitude of the settlers to the indigenous population, which I suspect are an embarrassment to many Israelis). However, although I know where I stand, I wouldn't want to watch anything which contained too much simple propaganda. I think The Promise did achieve a level of balance, sometimes to the detriment of the drama (eg the King David Hotel incident being followed by a suicide bomber). The perception has been is that The Promise was more pro Arab than Israeli, but I can guarantee that no-one with strong views and a knowledge of the history would be particularly satisfied with the politics. For instance, all the main characters were either Brits or Jews, the Arabs were walk-on one dimensional characters. I think it can best be regarded as a drama set in turbulent times, and not as a drama documentary - there is simply too much history to cover to do anything else. I realise it was a dramatic device but poor Len seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout. To put in context, the British had about 100,000 troops in Palestine from 46 to 48, and lost 234 (ish). Not a small figure, but less than you would think from watching The Promise where every other Jew appeared to be a member of the Irgun (which was just one of a number of Jewish organisations). And the 100,000 weren't all Paras... As others have mentioned, why didn't Erin just read the whole diary at once!! Anyway, I elected not to include spoilers so I'll remain silent on various bits which annoyed me along the 'that didn't happen' and 'that couldn't happen' lines. But overall, I did actually enjoy it. Worth watching.