Customer Reviews

The Complete Secret Army [Region 2]

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Secret Army was made in the nineteen seventies a time when the BBC made a number of series which without being high brow treated the public as intelligent and capable of following plots rather than having the attention span of a newt. Secret Army sits along side series like When the Boat Comes In, I claudius and Tinker Tailor as a memory of this goldern age.

The plot is set in World War Two and concerns a group of Belgians who help shotdown allied airmen escape from the Germans and get back to Britain. The group is led by Albert, played brillently by Bernard Hepton. Albert owns a Brussels restauraut paid for by British Intelligence and used by senior German Army and Gestapo officers. Albert is therefore able to keep an eye on the very people who are trying to catch him. In particular Major Brandt of the Luffwaffe Police and Stumbannfuhrer Kessler of the Gestapo, both of who use the restauraut on a regular basis.

Albert is a complex figure, he is for sure a brave man who risks torture and death to help the allied cause. He is also determined to come out of the war owning the restauraut and with as much as possible of the money given to him by the British still in his hands, although he does offer to share it with the other members of the escape line. He is also quiet capable of shooting allied airmen if they threaten the line.

As for the Germans, the Gestapo chief Kesseler, played with great skill by Clifford Rose, dispite being a fanatical Nazi is alo shown to have soft side, as in the second series he falls in love with a Belgian women. There are great performances not only from Hepton and Rose but from all the actors playing the major fiqures.

What is shown is that the line is at threat as much from Belgian and French collaborators as it is from the Germans.
They are also at risk from those Belgians who believe that Albert and his group are collaborators, as they are unaware of the restaurauts real purpose. In one episode the Belgian underground throw a hand grenade into the restaurant. The escapeline for reasons of security having nothing to do with other resistance groups.

In the third series the Communist resistance try to take over the line and Albert betrays themn to the Germans. The line between enemy and friend becoming more and more blurred. The line is also under threat from the allied airmen who quit often behave in a foolish or reckless manner.

Not that the series is without fault, everyone, German, Belgian, French, British and American speaks nothing but English and although the series revolves arround a restauraut, we never see the cook.

However if you like good acting with believable and tense plots then this series is for you.

You can also marvel at the courage of those people who did it for real.

Having seen this show 3-4 times ((2 times in English and 2 times dubbed in Persian language)) I admit this is the best and the most favorite of TV shows ever. The story takes place in occupied Belgium during WW II where a group of Belgians try to extract downed allied (mainly British) airmen out of occupied territories and send them back to England. This show is extremely exciting. The acting is classic. The characters are well made and defined. Story is so thrilling it takes your breath away. After almost 30 yrs after this show is done, it is still superb and great. I never get tired of watching segments of it on youtube either. It's highly recommended if you love a WW II TV show.

Couldn't stop watching it. Absolutely wonderful program. If you liked "Mission: Impossible" with a WW2 spin, you will love this program. The characters are very well written and superbly acted. You will love to hate Clifford Rose as Kessler, head of the Gestapo in Brussels.

This series is one of our classic favourites. We had seen it before we purchased it knowing that it would be enjoyed by us for a long time in the future.
The acting is supberb; it is high tension drama at times and there are moving emotional scenes. Couched within the series are historial truths although the whole series is fictional but based on a time when these event did indeed take place. The story is around the underground movement called 'life line' which aided British airmen, shot down over Belgium to escape back to Britain to fly again. It is a fact that 1000 airmen were rescued in this way. Belgium was occupied by Germany and the Gestapo were hot on the trail of the escape routes inflicting swift brutal punishment to those who were caught.
It truly portrays the life of Europeans living at that time under the stress of war, rationing, fear of the enemy and the constant harrassment of an occupying force weilding power into every part of life.