Friend at the door

Press, 11 October 1979, Page 19

Friend at the door

By

KEN FRASER

Lack of accent on jackbooted soldiers, their faces like bags stuffed with cold chisels, stomping around and screaming things such as “himmel,” or “Achtung,” or whatever the German is for swine dog, was an appealing feature of "Enemy at the Door” (TVJ, Tuesday night). Although there excepti o n s , overriding human faces came through among the German occupational command in this production on life and some death in the Channel Islands while the "Big Scrap" was being waged round them in the 19405. Predictably in the final

episode on Tuesday night Major Richter (Alfred Burke), after some obligatory mild rage, weighed on the side of mercy, albeit with ulterior motivation, in his "Judgment of Solomon.” He had evidence and the lives of several in his hands as they faced the supreme penalty for spying on a new German torpedo boat. Clare Martel (Emily Richard), a spirited girl, is freed after verbal admonishment and without so much as a smack across her lips from an officer’s glove. Her friend, Peter Porteous (Richard Heffer), who took the photographs of the boat, gets 12 months imprisonment on

the much lesser charge of trespassing in prohibited zones, while Clare’s father, the island doctor, ironically an unwitting collaborator, gets six months for censorship violation. Earlier there had been leniency by Oberleutnant Kluge (John Malcolm) in allowing a French sailor, who had infringed comingashore regulations, to return to his trading ship. The sailor (spy courier) had said he would lose his job and his vessel would be delayed if he was jailed for the few days threatened. There was not always wine and roses for the oc-

cupied. One of the less pleasant German officers recalled the execution of an islander for trying to get a message by pigeon post to England. The. 13-part series was not always compelling, and probably one or two of the earlier episodes were more convincing than the final episode, but to its credit the series was "different.” Although it w’ould be tough, perhaps, an attempt could be made to try and find the human face of Japanese occupation during World War 11. Perceptiveness in the brain cells for the last episode was sharpened by viewers having to think out answers for themselves in the preceding

programme, "University Challenge,” also on TVI. Showing a disturbing lack of general knowledge were two quiz teams from Lincoln College and the University of Otago. A howler was the quite serious Lincoln answer of Oliver Cromwell as the English cardinal who lost favour with Henry VIII. Such a reply to some would be like confusing Idi Amin with the present Pope. Otago was warm; it plumped for Thomas More, who at least was an ideological contemporary of Cardinal Wolsey. In all fairness there were simpler questions, but that’s what made it all the more worrying. Too many were beyond the teams. Nevertheless, as the quizmaster, Richard Higham, observed, the teams were good on drinks, and one member was hot stuff on comicstrip characters.

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