Any "Secret Army" fans here?

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24 years 2 months

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My Mum bought me the whole series on DVD and I finished watching it last night, one of the best TV series ever but now largely forgotten about.

It is about a Belgian evasion line for RAF men who are shot down over Belgium - they are helped to get down into Spain where they can be returned to combat. The characters are brilliant and it was a first-rate series.

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14 years 7 months

Posts: 319

I watched it originally and loved it. There was also a sequel set in South America about the the Nazis that had escaped.

Like I said I loved it all, and I have seen it 3 times now and I expect I will watch it again. I have the set of DVDs.

I was lucky enough to have been friends with Tommy Broom and he spoke about his escape from Belgium after crashing in his Mosquito, using a similar organisation.

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15 years 11 months

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I remember it well from when it was first shown on TV; I found it totally engrossing.

I think it was one of the first TV dramas where the characters spoke in 'natural' English rather than trying to put on distracting (and illogical) foreign accents.

And, of course, it was the inspiration for 'Allo 'Allo.

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20 years 5 months

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I watched it originally and loved it. There was also a sequel set in South America about the the Nazis that had escaped.

Like I said I loved it all, and I have seen it 3 times now and I expect I will watch it again. I have the set of DVDs.

Yes I really enjoyed it too. I watched again recently on 'Yesterday'.

The sequel was called 'Kessler' following the hunt for Standartenfuhrer Ludwig Kessler post war. IIRC the first episode was mostly footage from the unaired final episode of Secret Army called 'What did you do in the war, Daddy?' Where the survivors meet up again

Martin

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14 years 7 months

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The last episode of the original series where the German Luftwaffe Officer Major Hans Dietrich Reinhardt is brought before a court martial of fellow German prisoners led by Kessler ( using a different name ) and sentenced to death by a firing squad of German Prisoners.
In the original one shown at the time as the executed guy is put in a coffin, an English arm rips the Iron Cross of the body. In all of the repeats this scene is not shown.

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24 years 2 months

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I used to watch it on Yesterday but it is better to watch it without adverts and pieces cut out I think. I remember seeing "Kessler" when it was originally shown on BBC, but I didn't enjoy that as much as "Secret Army".

"Secret Army" has some brilliant storylines and a good deal of suspense and tension, as well as some superb characters. All the more interesting in the fact that it was based on things which really happened.

The death of Reinhardt was, in my opinion, the most upsetting part of the whole series. He was my absolute favourite character and I would have loved to see him survive beyond the end of the war like the others did. The way he winds Kessler up and doesn't give a damn about Kessler is just great.

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16 years 2 months

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Funnily enough, I "re-discovered" Secret Army on the net a couple of years ago and was reluctant to even attempt a second viewing as I'd found it dull, slow and tedious when it was first screened all those years ago.

I was wrong though. It's actually a gripping drama and well worth watching. The story line probably isn't all that authentic, as 90% of the action involves the same small cast of characters, but that said, it gives some idea of the dangers and penalties for getting involved in such activities.

And, of course, Monique, Natalie and Lisa make it worth getting shot down for! :)

And on a similar note, who remembers "Fourth Arm", BBC 1983?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196245/

This time it's a specially trained mix of volunteers and specialists, British and French, parachuted into Northern France to destroy a rocket storage site.

I had completely forgotten about this one (maybe I never even saw it first time around) but I thoroughly enjoyed it, too.

A large part of it is plot and character development during their training phrase but it all jogs along nicely and builds to the usual gripping and dramatic finale, will they all make it, will they succeed etc?

Besides the obvious links between the two, I think part of what I enjoyed was the BBC's reasonable attempts to get the look and feel of wartime in Northern Europe. I'm no expert but such things as dress, uniforms, vehicles and weapons, set dressings etc all looked fairly period. I've seen other efforts by commercial television that don't hold up all that well: Manhunt comes to mind?

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20 years

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I recently had the opportunity to watch this series for the first time when my friend loaned me his DVD sets. Utterly fantastic, a really superbly written and acted series. It never gets dull, you never know what might happen next. They do not make television like that any more.

It was made by the same people who made the series Colditz, which i also think was brilliantly made. Those two series, and Danger UXB, are examples of the best kind of television drama about WWII in my opinion.

I like the fact that Secret Army features lots of aeroplanes too. The BBMF Lacaster, B-17 Sally B, a Lysander, and a Mosquito all featured in different episodes.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,940

We went out to Eden Camp yesterday, and they have a memorial (and an exhibition) on escape lines and the vital role played by the real life people that "Secret Army" is based on.

The photo I attached is "Maxim's" on the Grande Place in Brussels, which was used as the location for external shots of Le Candide in series 2 and 3 of "Secret Army".

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14 years 6 months

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On the DVD extras it mentions a special one-off episode where the members of the resistance, now old, recall their experiences of the war with all the familiar characters present. I wonder if this missing episode exists on VHS somewhere?

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14 years 7 months

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It has been televised if I remember correct

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20 years 5 months

Posts: 542

That would be the Episode 'What did you do in the War, Daddy', it was never aired for various reasons. Some of the footage was used in the first episode of the sequel series - 'Kessler' It was earmarked fro release with the DVD set but because of clearance issues it never happened.

Martin

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18 years 5 months

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It was one of my passions when it was repeated a few years back. One of the best wartime dramas in my opinion. Absolutely love it.

I'm going to have to hunt for the DVDs now ;) lol.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,940

Just finished watching the "hanging" scenes from the third series (episode 11) to get screenshots for my Secret Army Facebook page. You spend the whole time watching that bit hoping that they don't put the noose round Reinhardt's neck, I certainly did the first time I saw it.

I'm also going to write some pieces about the aircraft used in the series for my page if I can get some decent pics of them from somewhere.

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14 years

Posts: 4,996

I've never gotten around to watching this series.

One I did watch though when I was an awful lot younger, was Moonstrike.
A precursor to Secret Army. It was about the Lysander operations to Europe.

http://www.startrader.co.uk/Action%20TV/guide60s/moonstrike.htm

An excellent book to read on the SOE, is Between Silk and Cyanide, by Leo Marks.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,940

Fans of "Secret Army" would also enjoy the third series of "Wish Me Luck" which I'm watching now. It's set in France as opposed to Belgium and features Resistance rather than escape lines, but it's a good series.