Well-known ‘Secret Army’

Press, 1 June 1981, Page 11

Well-known ‘Secret Army’

[Review]

Douglas McKenzie

The successful "Secret Armv" (One, Thursdays) has •inished the series bn the largely lucky number of 13 episodes. For the last time the drums have bumped through their ominous rhythm.- the Belgian night sky in the blackout has flickered to a rest, and the lighted farmhouse window with the bottle of schnapps in it has receded to the back of the screen along with the avenue' of poplars, the muddy road and the canal. And for the last time Bob Parker has greeted the end of the episode with rolling eves, a delicious shiver of

relieved apprehension, and an Bin smile. All in all. this show has been good value. It has certainly had its defects — there have been complaints that the only lightness in it resembling even a grin has been when the lips have drawn apart under the pressure of a spasm of indigestion. and that the script has drawn too easy a distinction between bad Germans as represented by the S.S. and good Germans as represented by the ordinary Wehrmacht, and there maybe merit in all this — but, by and large, it has passed the lest of good entertainment without being too artificial.

The theme, being serious, did not lend itself to excessive hilarity. At the same time, any temptation to wallow in self-righteousness or bravely to abjure heroics was properly avoided. When, from time to time, incidents fell into being unlikely. or even preposterous, enough good will had been generated in the viewer to carry the performance to firmer ground — and this says lots for general excellence. “Secret Army” was also a presentation good of its kind — which was the activity of British aircrew- in and around occupied territory

during World War 11. A recent show called "Pathfinders" did nothing whatever for the genre except to demonstrate how- unsatisfactory "Secret Army” might have been under less sure direction. There is. of course, a whole TV industry built round how the Germans behaved during the war: "Enemy at the Door" is another show of this kind which had its moments also, not to mention its bad quarter-hours.' An important part of this TV industry evolving on the German armed forces concerns — it might as well be noted in passing — the tailoring trade, because there must now be in the 8.8. C. wardrobe department more of those marvellous Nazi-era German uniforms, running to all their styles and complexity. than existed in even the Goebbels museum of examples in Berlin. What has held "Secret Army” together has been the masterly performance of Bernard Hepton, first noticed in this situation of the British and Germans in 1939-45 when he played the Lager Kommandant in “Colditz.”

Mr Hepton has a flair for the apparently deadpan face which is actually saying a great deal. It seems that he would be very poor in a song-and-dance routine, and good for him. His tense, and. at times, furious concern in circumstances of extreme and imminent danger has been the hallmark of his part in this series; and he has still been as worth watching in this at the end as he was in the beginning. It is now. in screen time. June. 1944; in a few months Brussels will be liberated, and Lifeline will be safe after three years of knifeedge work. Can they all survive? Only another series can tell. A number of absurdities have emerged in the production; one of these has been the assumption that everyone — Belgians, Germans, downed British fliers, and anyone else — talks English, although with varying accents,' and that no-one, especially the Germans, notices anything odd about this. But let it be artistic licence; the series has helped to pass the autumn nights of gathering cold with considerable style and interest. That is enough for any viewer's gratitude.