Another superb episode. For anyone questioning why an SOE would reveal so much in the end monologue, bear in mind dramatic license and the fact that the intention is to show why the guy is such an ‘odd man’, why he doesn’t want to engage with the others and why he doesn’t have any interest in escape. Most people wouldn’t have a clue about the life of an agent. The powerful monologue is both dramatic and revealing.
He sort of revealed information but past dead assignments and nothing about the structure and tricks per sec. The Actor has great strength of body and mind in his portrayal and so much more superior to the others in the camp. This guy has seen hell in so many ways. Obviously a German plant wouldnt stand out so much and cause friction trying to blend in but his ignorance of Air force stuff would definitely bring to attn the Col in such a tight community. Have you seen Stalag 17 movie B&W? Has a informer and top movie.
This one held me enthralled to the last minute. What an actor Ian McCulloch is!!!! What a script!!!! That last monologue held me in utter awe. I STOPPED BREATHING!!!
@Dindin Private - This one was in fact ONE OF THE WORST episodes. The character played by Ian McCulloch was completely implausible. A British secret operative would NOT have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social. Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. Leaving aside McCulloch's preposterous monologue at the end, the scene that really struck me as the height of stupidity was when McCulloch's character gouges the eyes of one of the British officers. There's no way a trained and disciplined special operative would have behaved like this. And there's no way the Germans would have just let it slide. This was altogether a very stupid, badly written episode.
@@wiseonwords - Dennis. This isn't a documentary. It's a TV show. It has to be entertaining, more than factual. What you say about how an SOE operative would have behaved may be correct. However, the reason for his behaviour and the reason for the superbly written monologue at the end is to try and explain to the simple audience what those operatives, both men and women alike, went through. Try not to look at this with a clipboard and magnifying glass in your hand, crossing or ticking boxes for historical or human behaviour accuracy. This episode aired in the 70's, when, perhaps, some SOE missions were still classified Top Secret. Not many knew about SOE at all back then, or very little. Certainly not as much as we know today. And if you truly consider the monologue to be "preposterous" then the whole point and meaning of this episode is lost to you. That's not the show's fault. I'm afraid it's yours.
I watched this great series a long time ago,now i am 58 and it is just as good as i rememberd!I've seen a lot of series from al over the world but the British are the very best.Than and now!Have a nice time watching.👌
When I was at school, we used to escape having been inspired by these chaps . We had to sneak by Matrons room , squeaky floor boards then past the house masters flat and through a. Seniors dorm without waking them out through a window and a leap across a six foot moat , into the woods and scale a six foot fence to freedom of Pen Ponds Then we had to get back before sunrise such fun!
They don’t write them like this anymore... where have all the good writers gone... this was brilliant, shocking, full of suspense and in the end some sympathy for the ‘Odd Man’...
@Francelee Paris - And thank goodness they DON'T write them like this anymore! This episode was complete and utter BS! Do you really believe that a highly trained British operative would have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was, threatening his fellow British officers, and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social. Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. And the monologue that this braggart-thug gives at the end, particularly the bit about the operative who smashes a teacup into his own child's face, is the height of implausible and bad writing. A trained operative so lacking on impulse control as to be that psychotic would not have lasted a single hour on a secret mission! This was altogether a very stupid, badly written episode.
@@wiseonwords You seem to be in the minority..... everyone else likes it and realizes its not a factual documentary... You could pick the hell out of it if you wanted facts only. Do you really think everything was so friendly in the prison from both sides as in every episode? Or in real life their clothes were perfectly ironed, and the actors dont look like they are starving like they were in real life.
@@wiseonwordsI bet you’re fun at parties. Ease up! It’s a tv programme and the writers are given a simple task; to entertain the audience. What would you prefer? 50 minutes of droll conversation and tea drinking! Because that’s exactly how it would have been in Colditz 99.9% of the time. Of course that would have satisfied you apparently.
In spite of all his secret agent talent, he is a human being, and was being threatened, suspected and harassed by all the other soldiers. Everyone has their limits and personality traits. He was bent on staying there and made the lines clear from the beginning, instead of maybe risk something else unforeseen happen. He wanted to stay there.
@PP Gedez - It was a preposterous monologue, for heaven's sake! Do you really think that a British secret operative would have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social. Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. Even the content of the monologue was stupid. That bit about the operative who smashed a teacup into the face of his own child when he was on leave beggars belief! Really? A trained operative so lacking in control that he's more or less a mindless psychopath! He wouldn't have lasted a single day if he acted like that on a mission. And leaving aside McCulloch's preposterous monologue at the end, the scene that really struck me as the height of stupidity was when McCulloch's character gouges the eyes of one of the British officers. There's no way a trained and disciplined special operative would have behaved like this. And there's no way the Germans would have just let it slide. This was altogether a very stupid, badly written episode.
the most frightening thing about this superb episode is that it is 100% true. full details of the type of war Page had were not allowed to be made public until 1975! McCulloch gave a fine performance but nobody could have done anything other than think they knew how such a resistance agent would feel and behave. One of my uncles and my grandmother were dropped into occupied France on those types of missions and only she lived to tell me what she went through. It was so unbelievable she could not even be given a decoration for her part in what she did for four years! Many years later I did try to find out why but was told that, as she was a French educated Australian national, she did not qualify for British or French military recognition..
It must have changed then as the French government has been awarding the Légion d’honneur to D-Day veterans from many different countries for several years. 6,000 a year. They even gave Bob Dylan a gong.
@@rogerpattube : yes, but they were military personnel and thus qualified for public recognition. None of my family were. MI5 knew what my grandmother did, rescue and bring children to England, but could never talk about it. I had much the same experience in Saigon from Feb 1968 to June 1970, running a refuge for blind orphans with help from people of several nationalities. My main job was being one of the leading foreign correspondents there but I could not even tell my godfather, Walter Cronkite, what I did. But he was so close to our family he probably knew. Even President Thieu thanked me and apologised for not being able to talk about the charitable side of my life in his country. The Koreans and Vietnamese military both decorated me for my journalism but I don't think they even knew about the charitable side of my life. The world is a far more interesting place when you just do what you feel you have to. Ciao. Anton
An excellent portrayal of the bravery and the terror of being an underground fighter. Very, very impressed by Ian McCulloch. Anyone know of anything else he has done?
@@wiseonwords Really? ^^ I do get it is maybe a little bit .... well, hard to describe, cheesy? ^^ It is not 100% flawless. But it is decent enough. I'd rather watch this than a lot else.
I remember all my school mates watching this every week when it was first on TV. Our Drama teacher was Dave Chapman, brother of Paul Chapman that played Capt. George Brent. Paul even came to our school once to soak up the fan adoration 😂.
@paul eggins - It was a good series, but every so often - as in this episode - it was dreadful. This was one of the most implausible and stupid episodes in the series.
I had no idea that these activities were being monitored and recorded, nor that they would be broadcasted weekly on your BBC, I must commend youtube for revealing this treachery, to think you even had cameras secreted in my own quarters, I regard this as an affront to my personal privacy, and Carter called ME a peeping Tom?..
When I went to England, frist I went to London for 3 days That was a sight seeing tour onto itself. Then I went up to Birmingham on New Years Eve and spent New Years Day at St. Andrew's watching Birmingham City draw with Barnsley at 1. The next day, I made the trek to Bletchley to Bletchley Park to learn their history of intelligence gathering, coding and secret information. I served in the the US (American) military. It is a beautiful place. At the time of my visit Bletchley Park was a museum. I spent the day doing my own tour of the place. Couldn't see the whole place . Because there was some sections that was courted off for construction at the time. At Blecthley Park, almost every item was preserved. Even down to the old trunk like suitcases.
"Pilot Office Page" was sent to Colditz?? Was he already known to the Germans? Anyway, stolen his identity, he got lucky and can hide out till the war is over. Brilliant last emotion speech. One of the best episodes of the series.
No one thinks war is glorious but for those who are willing to lay their lives down to preserve our way of life, they are the glorious ones and should tightly be thought as such. My grandfather who signed up to fight for king and country to risk his life, where others wouldn't, he is my hero. Being able to have to courage to do that, and he was one who was always opposed to war as a Baptist, yet set that aside to do his duty.
@@jamesclayton3388 His point was, we romanticize war and those that participated. But nothing about it is. It is simply a business in death and pain. Whether we should hail them as heroes and heroines .. maybe we're doing them a disservice, putting more pressure on their titles. Because most of us do not know what goes into becoming a hero. Maybe it is better if we either focus our efforts on giving them a decent life, mental health support and such. Because the sacrifices they make are ten times over what normal people do during a lifetime. Or maybe a hundred times.
True. There is no way that one man could have gotten round to safely visiting each resistance cell and it defies the whole reasoning behind the cell network. It was cellular in order that the loss of one cell wouldn't compromise any other cells.
Uhm, how would they know to trust him if they had no clue who he was? They must have had some form of knowledge. And as he said, big stash of cash waiting for whoever betrays him. He figured it was safer in jail than push on with the operations after he knew the germans had found out who he was and put the price on him.
Like the season 1 episode 'Spirit of freedom', a mostly tame, slow moving episode. But the last scenes in both episodes......fucking hell they're amazing.
Well.... yes, but damn, a lot of work just to look that way. Maybe a balance is better. And those corsets they were forced to wear, more like torture than a necessity. Most of those women were slender enough as it was.
Bletchley Park would never have been mentioned. Even after the war it was kept secret until the 1960's and Chapman who wrote the book (Hut 6 Story) got into major trouble for exposing the code breaking.
@Chris Collier - the script and the actor were dreadful! A hammy performance of an implausible script, I'd say. Do you really believe that a highly trained British operative would have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was, threatening his fellow British officers, and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social? Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. There are numerous of British operatives - men and women - during the Second World War. None of these operatives were boastful, out-of-control thugs like the moron played by this McCulloch actor! He wouldn't have listed a minute on a real undercover mission.
Revealing episode of the war time spy. We forget what a risky job it can be. Apparently, however, undercover surveillance and espionage work was rather boring and not really filled with movie style intrigue. If you were caught, it would mean a cyanide capsule was your best friend. On the whole, if you read a book about those spies, you'll find yourself skipping pages and pages of tedious stuff to get to the good parts.
The risk was extremely high as you say. A lot of the stories remain secret because no side wants to give away its tactics for the next war.... any book has to be cleared for publication.
His daughter made him jump so he killed her without thinking. Looks like his training failed completely and he should have been posted to the cookhouse instead.
You think there was descreening programs like this back then? People were trained and put to the front. They weren't extensively checked when they came back. If they acted normal, they were sent home. I guess. Any small thing like that in the wrong moment could end in such away, i am sure similar things has happened in the past. It's sad, really. Mental health hasn't been taken seriously.
One glaring continuity error the officer in London mentioning Bletchley Park to a civilian - Bletchley officially didn’t exist until long after the war - it’s use was declassified in dribs n drabs. Ooops.
Too few people nowadays know what it takes out of people who call themselves operator, or even during that war resistance fighter. It was all fight alright. And too many were picked up and tortured. The torture was and still is one of humiliation than anything else. It's a bad, bad world with at times good people silently going mad. A prayer for them this morning
"I complete the crossword in 10 or 15 minutes" "I will have to make it harder". Some of the truth of MI5 and MI6 in those days reads like folklore. They were all toffy boffins.
@@zabdas83 My comment was this: that the people, the style, their charachteristics, and how it is all depicted in the cinema, in books, in spy fiction, has such a strong genre rich tropes or rules that it is like its own folklore.
Carter being a Lt and Escape officer can give orders to Cpts above him without saying please of any of those courtesies. Sort of second in command under the Lt Col in a way besides the MO.
How come all these POW films portray officer prisoners loafing around playing chess and moaning about food parcels they were the lucky ones exempt from work . The enlisted men were forced to work in mines etc you never hear their story .
Officers were exempted from manual work by the Geneva Convention. Lower ranks were expected to work for their jailers, but not in work which would benefit their war effort.
There's a film about the lower rank POWs called 'password is courage' with Dirk Bogarde. He's a sergeant-major in a working camp. There's no officers and they work in a train yard/lumber factory. IIRC the real Coward finished the war in an IG Farben plant near the Aushwitz area. There was another big POW camp in this area called Lamsdorf (oflag viiib), in fact there was a lot of british POW activity in this area of southern Poland. There's a few names for you to google.
There's more holes in this storyline than swiss cheese! An agent who brought attention to himself cos he couldn't follow the others and line up properly? Gave his name/rank/No when non of the others had, etc. Won't escape bcos the others now knew/suspected what he was, but he preferred to stay within the camp with those same guys and their knowledge. If he had a problem with them knowing, when he escaped the problem went with him. There were a few others but they don't detract from the overall quality.
Commandant, I would like to lodge a complaint with the Protecting Power regarding the complete lack of racial and gender-based diversity in this show. Unacceptable! lol
A 'spy' as smart as our man here would be savvy enough to mimic the behavoir of the other men and would line up as they did, would fill any gaps at the end of the line and wouldn't repeat his name & No without being asked. For a man trying not to be inconspicuous, he made sure he stood out like a nipple on a bald mans head. This series has been quite believeable up until now but this, and the later episode where carrington parachutes into a Balkan country verges towards sillydom. A pity.
Stupid episode. A spec ops guy would NEVER burn an operative on purpose. NEVER! London gave him an order, he refused the order (in spec ops at war time, this is a shooting offence), instead he burnt a whole operation. Stupid speach at the end, a speach made by a frustrated guy who wants to show everyone he's superior, when he actually feels inferior. RAF officers went through all sorts of training, their responsibility is huge, the physical effort together with concentration and second-split decision abilities is way above any spec ops, especially on part of fighter pilots. Talking to him as a child who doesn't know what sacrifice means, when fighter pilots went down like flies, making the highest of sacrifices, thinking that he is "the man". He's a traitor , nothing more.
He wanted the Germans to believe he was anything but cunning. He succeeded. They thought he was a violent fool, anti-social so that guarantees he'll never escape. Because escaping requires teamwork.
At 65 years I find this episode to be one of the most gripping and well written.The SOE were more than brave men and women.
Another superb episode. For anyone questioning why an SOE would reveal so much in the end monologue, bear in mind dramatic license and the fact that the intention is to show why the guy is such an ‘odd man’, why he doesn’t want to engage with the others and why he doesn’t have any interest in escape. Most people wouldn’t have a clue about the life of an agent. The powerful monologue is both dramatic and revealing.
Well said... Couldn't agree more. Great episode!
@@zabdas83 cheers!
He should have volunteered to be head of the Escape Committee, so that he could stay sheltered at Colditz.
He sort of revealed information but past dead assignments and nothing about the structure and tricks per sec. The Actor has great strength of body and mind in his portrayal and so much more superior to the others in the camp. This guy has seen hell in so many ways. Obviously a German plant wouldnt stand out so much and cause friction trying to blend in but his ignorance of Air force stuff would definitely bring to attn the Col in such a tight community. Have you seen Stalag 17 movie B&W? Has a informer and top movie.
@@xx3868I just typed a whole reply, but it just disappeared! I'll have to redo it.
This one held me enthralled to the last minute. What an actor Ian McCulloch is!!!! What a script!!!! That last monologue held me in utter awe. I STOPPED BREATHING!!!
Chilling!
@Dindin Private - This one was in fact ONE OF THE WORST episodes. The character played by Ian McCulloch was completely implausible. A British secret operative would NOT have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social. Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. Leaving aside McCulloch's preposterous monologue at the end, the scene that really struck me as the height of stupidity was when McCulloch's character gouges the eyes of one of the British officers. There's no way a trained and disciplined special operative would have behaved like this. And there's no way the Germans would have just let it slide. This was altogether a very stupid, badly written episode.
A bit of hyperbole there, I think
Wow, me too. That was intense.
@@wiseonwords - Dennis. This isn't a documentary. It's a TV show. It has to be entertaining, more than factual. What you say about how an SOE operative would have behaved may be correct. However, the reason for his behaviour and the reason for the superbly written monologue at the end is to try and explain to the simple audience what those operatives, both men and women alike, went through.
Try not to look at this with a clipboard and magnifying glass in your hand, crossing or ticking boxes for historical or human behaviour accuracy. This episode aired in the 70's, when, perhaps, some SOE missions were still classified Top Secret. Not many knew about SOE at all back then, or very little. Certainly not as much as we know today. And if you truly consider the monologue to be "preposterous" then the whole point and meaning of this episode is lost to you. That's not the show's fault. I'm afraid it's yours.
I watched this great series a long time ago,now i am 58 and it is just as good as i rememberd!I've seen a lot of series from al over the world but the British are the very best.Than and now!Have a nice time watching.👌
When I was at school, we used to escape having been inspired by these chaps .
We had to sneak by Matrons room , squeaky floor boards then past the house masters flat and through a. Seniors dorm without waking them out through a window and a leap across a six foot moat , into the woods and scale a six foot fence to freedom of Pen Ponds
Then we had to get back before sunrise such fun!
Gosh. Sounds like an absolute wheeze.
They don’t write them like this anymore... where have all the good writers gone... this was brilliant, shocking, full of suspense and in the end some sympathy for the ‘Odd Man’...
Absolutely. No flashing lights, no big explosions, no car chases or special effects. Just great acting, dialogue and narrative.
@Francelee Paris - And thank goodness they DON'T write them like this anymore! This episode was complete and utter BS! Do you really believe that a highly trained British operative would have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was, threatening his fellow British officers, and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social. Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. And the monologue that this braggart-thug gives at the end, particularly the bit about the operative who smashes a teacup into his own child's face, is the height of implausible and bad writing. A trained operative so lacking on impulse control as to be that psychotic would not have lasted a single hour on a secret mission! This was altogether a very stupid, badly written episode.
@@Gryffster Human stories that most viewers could see themselves in.
@@wiseonwords You seem to be in the minority..... everyone else likes it and realizes its not a factual documentary...
You could pick the hell out of it if you wanted facts only.
Do you really think everything was so friendly in the prison from both sides as in every episode? Or in real life their clothes were perfectly ironed, and the actors dont look like they are starving like they were in real life.
@@wiseonwordsI bet you’re fun at parties. Ease up! It’s a tv programme and the writers are given a simple task; to entertain the audience. What would you prefer? 50 minutes of droll conversation and tea drinking! Because that’s exactly how it would have been in Colditz 99.9% of the time. Of course that would have satisfied you apparently.
This is such an intelligent show. ❤.
June 2024 and still love watching Colditz ... been watching this oon and off for 50 years 😀
me too m8, watch one or two a night, reliving my teenage years !!
Same here
@@stevem7868-y4l i had to ask my dad if i could stay up to watch Colditz
@@andrewmorton395 enjoy my friend ... from Yorkshire
For someone wanting to keep a low profile he has an amazing talent for drawing attention to himself.
Spot on! I found this character completely implausible.
@@wiseonwords I agree, still it was entertaining.
I think he was drawing attention to himself so that the Germans would realize immediately if he went missing.
In spite of all his secret agent talent, he is a human being, and was being threatened, suspected and harassed by all the other soldiers. Everyone has their limits and personality traits. He was bent on staying there and made the lines clear from the beginning, instead of maybe risk something else unforeseen happen. He wanted to stay there.
Awesome monologue at the end powerful stuff, all round a great episode. Now onto the next one.
@PP Gedez - It was a preposterous monologue, for heaven's sake! Do you really think that a British secret operative would have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social. Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. Even the content of the monologue was stupid. That bit about the operative who smashed a teacup into the face of his own child when he was on leave beggars belief! Really? A trained operative so lacking in control that he's more or less a mindless psychopath! He wouldn't have lasted a single day if he acted like that on a mission. And leaving aside McCulloch's preposterous monologue at the end, the scene that really struck me as the height of stupidity was when McCulloch's character gouges the eyes of one of the British officers. There's no way a trained and disciplined special operative would have behaved like this. And there's no way the Germans would have just let it slide. This was altogether a very stupid, badly written episode.
@@wiseonwords
Thanks for the input i will keep it in mind for future episodes.
the most frightening thing about this superb episode is that it is 100% true. full details of the type of war Page had were not allowed to be made public until 1975! McCulloch gave a fine performance but nobody could have done anything other than think they knew how such a resistance agent would feel and behave. One of my uncles and my grandmother were dropped into occupied France on those types of missions and only she lived to tell me what she went through. It was so unbelievable she could not even be given a decoration for her part in what she did for four years! Many years later I did try to find out why but was told that, as she was a French educated Australian national, she did not qualify for British or French military recognition..
"Colditz" was made from 1972 to 1974.
It must have changed then as the French government has been awarding the Légion d’honneur to D-Day veterans from many different countries for several years. 6,000 a year. They even gave Bob Dylan a gong.
@@rogerpattube : yes, but they were military personnel and thus qualified for public recognition. None of my family were. MI5 knew what my grandmother did, rescue and bring children to England, but could never talk about it. I had much the same experience in Saigon from Feb 1968 to June 1970, running a refuge for blind orphans with help from people of several nationalities. My main job was being one of the leading foreign correspondents there but I could not even tell my godfather, Walter Cronkite, what I did. But he was so close to our family he probably knew. Even President Thieu thanked me and apologised for not being able to talk about the charitable side of my life in his country. The Koreans and Vietnamese military both decorated me for my journalism but I don't think they even knew about the charitable side of my life. The world is a far more interesting place when you just do what you feel you have to. Ciao. Anton
Can you tell us more please? Maybe a YT video? Thanks.....
The complexity of this story was revealed much better than most spy movies.
Outstanding drama and storylines..
God what a story..and the ending was real hard
Brilliant stuff!
An excellent portrayal of the bravery and the terror of being an underground fighter.
Very, very impressed by Ian McCulloch. Anyone know of anything else he has done?
Survivors I think series was called.
@@dermottjohn6809 Thank you.
@@dindinprivate3477 no problem I loved his character in survivors great actor.
Survivors, BBC 1975 is incredible. Especially the first series. Ian McCullouch absolutely shines in it as Greg Preston.
Echo and the Bunnymen was a great shift in style for him.
Thanks for putting this up, awesome show.....
So many who would later go on into Glaister's epic 'Secret Army'
Great acting by Ian McCulloch.
Both Iain McCulloch and David McCallum are Glasgow born
@bonpourvous - Trashy overacting! BS script!
@@wiseonwords Really? ^^ I do get it is maybe a little bit .... well, hard to describe, cheesy? ^^ It is not 100% flawless. But it is decent enough. I'd rather watch this than a lot else.
my favorite episode
I remember all my school mates watching this every week when it was first on TV.
Our Drama teacher was Dave Chapman, brother of Paul Chapman that played Capt. George Brent.
Paul even came to our school once to soak up the fan adoration 😂.
Wow, I had forgotten just how good this series was.
Me too Paul.
Definitely worth repeating!
And I forgot I'd even posted, just recieved your comment, must have been handled by the post office here, not UK, they are really slow.
and the book is better.
@@SOffenbach To be fair the book is always better 🤓
@paul eggins - It was a good series, but every so often - as in this episode - it was dreadful. This was one of the most implausible and stupid episodes in the series.
great performance
what a great episode
What a fantastic episode.
@Ian Rhodes - This episode was tripe!
Superb episode by all concerned.
I had no idea that these activities were being monitored and recorded, nor that they would be broadcasted weekly on your BBC, I must commend youtube for revealing this treachery, to think you even had cameras secreted in my own quarters, I regard this as an affront to my personal privacy, and Carter called ME a peeping Tom?..
A man called Horst. 😅
Gripping storyline. superb
Brilliant....👍
SUPERB!!!!!
There is no way anybody with knowledge of Bletchley Park would mention the place to someone who didn't.
I agree. It would have been referred to GCCS. Government Code and Cypher School. Or Station X.
There are people who went to their graves from old age in the 1990’s and 2000’s still refusing to talk about Bletchley.
When I went to England, frist I went to London for 3 days That was a sight seeing tour onto itself. Then I went up to Birmingham on New Years Eve and spent New Years Day at St. Andrew's watching Birmingham City draw with Barnsley at 1. The next day, I made the trek to Bletchley to Bletchley Park to learn their history of intelligence gathering, coding and secret information. I served in the the US (American) military. It is a beautiful place. At the time of my visit Bletchley Park was a museum. I spent the day doing my own tour of the place. Couldn't see the whole place . Because there was some sections that was courted off for construction at the time. At Blecthley Park, almost every item was preserved. Even down to the old trunk like suitcases.
@@dalemcilwain excellent
"Pilot Office Page" was sent to Colditz?? Was he already known to the Germans? Anyway, stolen his identity, he got lucky and can hide out till the war is over. Brilliant last emotion speech. One of the best episodes of the series.
Electrifying!
A superb episode.
anyone who thinks war is some noble and glorious adventure needs to watch this episode....
For those who gave there tomorrow for your today, yes they are noble and they are heroes. War was never cricket.
@@jamesclayton3388 Nothing what so ever to do with the statement made......
No one thinks war is glorious but for those who are willing to lay their lives down to preserve our way of life, they are the glorious ones and should tightly be thought as such. My grandfather who signed up to fight for king and country to risk his life, where others wouldn't, he is my hero. Being able to have to courage to do that, and he was one who was always opposed to war as a Baptist, yet set that aside to do his duty.
@@jamesclayton3388 His point was, we romanticize war and those that participated. But nothing about it is. It is simply a business in death and pain. Whether we should hail them as heroes and heroines .. maybe we're doing them a disservice, putting more pressure on their titles. Because most of us do not know what goes into becoming a hero. Maybe it is better if we either focus our efforts on giving them a decent life, mental health support and such. Because the sacrifices they make are ten times over what normal people do during a lifetime. Or maybe a hundred times.
Getting into the position where every resistance cell in France knows who you are doesn't strike me as a good way to do your job.
True. There is no way that one man could have gotten round to safely visiting each resistance cell and it defies the whole reasoning behind the cell network. It was cellular in order that the loss of one cell wouldn't compromise any other cells.
Uhm, how would they know to trust him if they had no clue who he was? They must have had some form of knowledge. And as he said, big stash of cash waiting for whoever betrays him. He figured it was safer in jail than push on with the operations after he knew the germans had found out who he was and put the price on him.
Like the season 1 episode 'Spirit of freedom', a mostly tame, slow moving episode.
But the last scenes in both episodes......fucking hell they're amazing.
I just recognized the actor, who played Handley Page: he had a role, in a James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever.
the guy playing Simon Carter was Ducky in NCIS
@D Mack
Yep, though most people probably don't know the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
I love the way women dressed so smartly at this time. I have a photograph of my mother looking very much like Mrs Carter.
I've a thing for 50s fashions. Women hardly wear dresses now. 😕
Well.... yes, but damn, a lot of work just to look that way. Maybe a balance is better. And those corsets they were forced to wear, more like torture than a necessity. Most of those women were slender enough as it was.
@@123TauruZ321 They weren't forced to wear them. It was the fashion of the time.
@@theblaststudio I don't think they would wear them if the didn't feel like they had to. Maybe it's a reason why it's not used anymore.
@@123TauruZ321 Nobody wore corsets in 1942. Girdles until the 60s
The Navy officers rank gold ringlets on his cuffs are far to wide apart!
They are fake and very amateurish !
Bletchley Park would never have been mentioned. Even after the war it was kept secret until the 1960's and Chapman who wrote the book (Hut 6 Story) got into major trouble for exposing the code breaking.
"WOW" ! I'd forgot this episode .
Great episode
Superb.
"Bond, James B...
Paige: "......"
My apologies, have a nice day."
The script and the actor were....Brilliant! On another day the part would go to Richard Burton.
@Chris Collier - the script and the actor were dreadful! A hammy performance of an implausible script, I'd say. Do you really believe that a highly trained British operative would have entered a place like Colditz bragging about how tough he was, threatening his fellow British officers, and drawing attention to himself by being so anti-social? Had he been so stupid, he would immediately have attracted the attention of his German captors. There are numerous of British operatives - men and women - during the Second World War. None of these operatives were boastful, out-of-control thugs like the moron played by this McCulloch actor! He wouldn't have listed a minute on a real undercover mission.
All of you commenting on here get back to your quarters immediately!
Mohn aka Major Volkmann from "Escap to Athena" (1979) with Fake Austrian Wehrmacht officer Roger Moore damn what a casting mistake!
Hahahahaha ! ! !
I would not describe war as noble or glorious, but as the great Vietnam war photographer once said, " you can't take the glamour out of war".
Overpowering. The spy who couldn't come in from the cold.
@Dindin Private - Overpoweringly bad acting of a dreadful script!
@@wiseonwords Wow really? ^^
Its a good thing that DUCKY is there to keep things in order..
You mean Ilya?
or Steel
Revealing episode of the war time spy. We forget what a risky job it can be. Apparently, however, undercover surveillance and espionage work was rather boring and not really filled with movie style intrigue. If you were caught, it would mean a cyanide capsule was your best friend. On the whole, if you read a book about those spies, you'll find yourself skipping pages and pages of tedious stuff to get to the good parts.
The risk was extremely high as you say. A lot of the stories remain secret because no side wants to give away its tactics for the next war.... any book has to be cleared for publication.
Odd man's monologue at the end is hilarious.
The spittle was good and I kept thinking of Michael Palin parodies
Yea...a right laugh...
@@tumadoireachtlol
Thank you for posting. Are Episodes 2,6,7,10, and 11 unavailable.
I watched this as child w my father back when it aired on American PBS.
what happened to the actor Peter Winter (Jimmy Walker)
Page has to be James Bonds father. Brilliant episode.
His daughter made him jump so he killed her without thinking. Looks like his training failed completely and he should have been posted to the cookhouse instead.
You think there was descreening programs like this back then? People were trained and put to the front. They weren't extensively checked when they came back. If they acted normal, they were sent home. I guess. Any small thing like that in the wrong moment could end in such away, i am sure similar things has happened in the past. It's sad, really. Mental health hasn't been taken seriously.
Not related to this brilliant series, but can i just say emilia fox is the spit of her mum, and you can see from where she gets her talent.
thanks
Awesome 👏
What has happened to the world that this type of writing and acting has vanished?
Fantastic to see these again. What happened to see?
One glaring continuity error the officer in London mentioning Bletchley Park to a civilian - Bletchley officially didn’t exist until long after the war - it’s use was declassified in dribs n drabs. Ooops.
It wasn't all crumpets and plovers eggs...!
Palmer! He aged well in the spy business.
“I shall only say this only once”……….
For a high level agent Page stands out a mile what with the goon baiting and eye stabbing.
Jolly good show...🙃
Doesn't Mrs Carter get a cup of tea then Old Boy ?
So Mrs Carter doesn't get a cup of tea !
Tea was rationed back then also
Epic!
I am from Swindon and trust me its not a nice place to be stuck in
Too few people nowadays know what it takes out of people who call themselves operator, or even during that war resistance fighter. It was all fight alright. And too many were picked up and tortured. The torture was and still is one of humiliation than anything else. It's a bad, bad world with at times good people silently going mad. A prayer for them this morning
"I complete the crossword in 10 or 15 minutes"
"I will have to make it harder".
Some of the truth of MI5 and MI6 in those days reads like folklore. They were all toffy boffins.
Go on, like what?
@@zabdas83 I dont understand your question
@seanlynch1185 tell some mi5 folklore?
@@zabdas83 My comment was this: that the people, the style, their charachteristics, and how it is all depicted in the cinema, in books, in spy fiction, has such a strong genre rich tropes or rules that it is like its own folklore.
Carter being a Lt and Escape officer can give orders to Cpts above him without saying please of any of those courtesies. Sort of second in command under the Lt Col in a way besides the MO.
best episode so far 10/10 fanx v moooooch 4 the up
How come all these POW films portray officer prisoners loafing around playing chess and moaning about food parcels they were the lucky ones exempt from work . The enlisted men were forced to work in mines etc you never hear their story .
you cant cage a greyhound, they werent lazy , they would have preferred to fight and see their families
Very silly. This is about officers. Not miners. Please grow up.
Officers were exempted from manual work by the Geneva Convention. Lower ranks were expected to work for their jailers, but not in work which would benefit their war effort.
There's a film about the lower rank POWs called 'password is courage' with Dirk Bogarde. He's a sergeant-major in a working camp. There's no officers and they work in a train yard/lumber factory. IIRC the real Coward finished the war in an IG Farben plant near the Aushwitz area. There was another big POW camp in this area called Lamsdorf (oflag viiib), in fact there was a lot of british POW activity in this area of southern Poland.
There's a few names for you to google.
@@JesusChrist-ir1td I do know who Dirk Bogarde was.
And this week's prize for sustained intensive sneering and over-acting goes to Ian McCulloch.
What happened to SO2-EO2?
This episode opened with the last episodes 'ghosts' living "free". Somehow in the gap the Gerries have caught & punished them. 🙂
Powerful script
Why would the Germans let him back in wearing the civilian suit he was to escape in ? .
His escape attempt was not discovered.
Now compare what you have just seen to the current product released by Netflix etc. Scary
You've come to the right men
Must say, those walls and doors at old Colditz must be pretty thick, what with all that shouting.
Good episode, who and where did those midgets go to when piggy-backed in?. How to those RAF officers keep their shirts and uniforms so emasculate?.
Damn those German officers ....they did have the smartest uniforms
+jontibloom Lol. Very true.
Hugo Boss
@@jackrabbit5047 Only the black ones.
Lt.Player's uniform gold stripes are too far apart.
Poetic licence. Enjoy the show.
Roy C Horton it’s because the jacket was meant to look like it was made by the other soldiers.
Episode cracking as was Emilia Fox's mother.
Wow, David McCallum , from The Man from Uncle to The Great Escape . Then on to Colditz , now in crappy NCIS with 2nd rate Actors.
WW2 (early) Special forces.
There's more holes in this storyline than swiss cheese!
An agent who brought attention to himself cos he couldn't follow the others and line up properly? Gave his name/rank/No when non of the others had, etc.
Won't escape bcos the others now knew/suspected what he was, but he preferred to stay within the camp with those same guys and their knowledge. If he had a problem with them knowing, when he escaped the problem went with him.
There were a few others but they don't detract from the overall quality.
Good points.
Page what happened to him....
Commandant, I would like to lodge a complaint with the Protecting Power regarding the complete lack of racial and gender-based diversity in this show. Unacceptable! lol
Lol
Page was SOE
A 'spy' as smart as our man here would be savvy enough to mimic the behavoir of the other men and would line up as they did, would fill any gaps at the end of the line and wouldn't repeat his name & No without being asked.
For a man trying not to be inconspicuous, he made sure he stood out like a nipple on a bald mans head.
This series has been quite believeable up until now but this, and the later episode where carrington parachutes into a Balkan country verges towards sillydom. A pity.
+MrFredSed Yep, and for people running a secret escape committee they sure do shout a lot.
You missed the point. He has cracked under the stress of the job.
@@TheSealOfTheRose exactly
These people still exist, they still do the same thing, in the name of security, security of the rich, and without the brains to realize it.
And in one generation we will have brought up a race of such mollycoddled snowflakes there won't be anyone capable of taking their place.
Stupid episode. A spec ops guy would NEVER burn an operative on purpose. NEVER! London gave him an order, he refused the order (in spec ops at war time, this is a shooting offence), instead he burnt a whole operation. Stupid speach at the end, a speach made by a frustrated guy who wants to show everyone he's superior, when he actually feels inferior. RAF officers went through all sorts of training, their responsibility is huge, the physical effort together with concentration and second-split decision abilities is way above any spec ops, especially on part of fighter pilots. Talking to him as a child who doesn't know what sacrifice means, when fighter pilots went down like flies, making the highest of sacrifices, thinking that he is "the man". He's a traitor , nothing more.
For someone in Intelligence the guy was very stupid. He did everything to attract attention and suspicion. But I guess he had read the script.
Didn't you see the end. The man had cracked. He'd lost his nerve.
He wanted the Germans to believe he was anything but cunning.
He succeeded. They thought he was a violent fool, anti-social so that guarantees he'll never escape.
Because escaping requires teamwork.
E'd cracked like an egg, he had. The poor bastard.
...and this episode's best "lol" when Carter speaking about his wife says... 8:27
Off point but emilia fox is the spit of her mum