OT: Colditz episode
Angus Manwaring
This is a question for Five Points, so fingers on your buzzers. :)
I saw a recording of an old Colditz episode over the weekend, and I'm a
bit confused.
Do you remember the episode where a middle aged Wing Commander pretends
to lose his mind so that the Germans will repatriate him to England?
"Tweedledum" was the episode title, I believe.
It takes a while, he succeeds in upsetting almost all his fellow
prisoners, but in the end he is sent back to England.
Now my memory of this has the Senior British Officer receieving a letter
from the Wing Commander's sister, which is the sting in the tail of the
story - I think the episode won an award back when it was broadcast.
Anyway, that scene did not occur in the recording I saw, so does anybody
rememeber this - or did the sting happen a few weeks afterwards in a later
episode.
All the best,
Angus Manwaring. (for e-mail remove ANTISPEM)
I need your memories for the Amiga Games Database: A collection of Amiga
Game reviews by Amiga players http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/AGDB.html
Richard Tibbetts
> This is a question for Five Points, so fingers on your buzzers. :)
>
> I saw a recording of an old Colditz episode over the weekend, and I'm a
> bit confused.
>
> Do you remember the episode where a middle aged Wing Commander pretends
> to lose his mind so that the Germans will repatriate him to England?
> "Tweedledum" was the episode title, I believe.
>
> It takes a while, he succeeds in upsetting almost all his fellow
> prisoners, but in the end he is sent back to England.
>
> Now my memory of this has the Senior British Officer receieving a letter
> from the Wing Commander's sister, which is the sting in the tail of the
> story - I think the episode won an award back when it was broadcast.
> Anyway, that scene did not occur in the recording I saw, so does anybody
> rememeber this - or did the sting happen a few weeks afterwards in a later
> episode.
I remember it ending with the letter being read out, initially to cheers
from the other prisoners, and then changing to horror as they all
realised he had actually gone mad. The scene, and the episode ended
with the CO announcing that no further escape attempts of a similar
nature would be tolerated. (Good grief! I'm remembering all this from
1972!!)
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_(TV_series)#Episode_summaries
has the following summary:
* Tweedledum
Arguably the best episode of the series, and winner of several awards.
Wing Commander Marsh, an assistant to the British Medical Officer,
decides to use his extensive knowledge of mental illness for an escape.
He proposes to "go insane" and be repatriated. Colonel Preston agrees to
let him, so long as he follows through with it to the bitter end. He
does a remarkable job, to the point of annoying his fellow officers
(unaware of the scheme) without relent. The Germans are not convinced,
and Ulmann sets a Corporal on Marsh's trail. This Corporal has a brother
who is insane, so Ulmann believes he is a better judge, even than the
doctors, of Marsh's condition. The Kommandant initially refuses to allow
the Swiss authority to examine Marsh, but relents when Marsh's madness
embarrasses him in front of an important visitor. By the time the
Germans are willing to consider repatriation, no one, not even the MO,
is sure whether or not Marsh has actually gone mad. (A letter from
England refers to his incurable condition, but the script leaves open
the possibility that the authorities are continuing the pretence in
order to protect the remaining inmates.)
Bruce Goatly
> Angus Manwaring wrote:
>> This is a question for Five Points, so fingers on your buzzers. :)
>> Now my memory of this has the Senior British Officer receieving a
>> letter from the Wing Commander's sister, which is the sting in the
>> tail of the story - I think the episode won an award back when it
>> was broadcast. Anyway, that scene did not occur in the recording I
>> saw, so does anybody rememeber this - or did the sting happen a few
>> weeks afterwards in a later episode.
>
> I remember it ending with the letter being read out, initially to
> cheers from the other prisoners, and then changing to horror as they
> all realised he had actually gone mad. The scene, and the episode
> ended with the CO announcing that no further escape attempts of a
> similar nature would be tolerated. (Good grief! I'm remembering all
> this from 1972!!)
Richard is perfectly correct (of course!) - I've just rewatched the end of
the episode in question. Excellent stuff.
ObB5: Dick Player was of course Knight One, and I claim my five B5 points.
Bruce
Angus Manwaring
>Angus Manwaring wrote:
>> This is a question for Five Points, so fingers on your buzzers. :)
>>
>> I saw a recording of an old Colditz episode over the weekend, and I'm a
>> bit confused.
>>
>> Do you remember the episode where a middle aged Wing Commander pretends
>> to lose his mind so that the Germans will repatriate him to England?
>> "Tweedledum" was the episode title, I believe.
>>
>> It takes a while, he succeeds in upsetting almost all his fellow
>> prisoners, but in the end he is sent back to England.
>>
>> Now my memory of this has the Senior British Officer receieving a letter
>> from the Wing Commander's sister, which is the sting in the tail of the
>> story - I think the episode won an award back when it was broadcast.
>> Anyway, that scene did not occur in the recording I saw, so does anybody
>> rememeber this - or did the sting happen a few weeks afterwards in a later
>> episode.
>I remember it ending with the letter being read out, initially to cheers
>from the other prisoners, and then changing to horror as they all
>realised he had actually gone mad. The scene, and the episode ended
>with the CO announcing that no further escape attempts of a similar
>nature would be tolerated. (Good grief! I'm remembering all this from
>1972!!)
Yeah, me too. :)
Thanks for that, I suppose this is the drawback of getting a dvd off ebay
of ths sort of thing, but can you imagine showing such a powerful episode
and then clipping off that ending?!!!
I'm sorry but the term a*s*candle comes to mind.
I didn't quite agree with the Wiki viewpoint - for me there was no doubt
that the Wing Commmander had lost his mind.
Anyway, very many thanks - I was pretty sure I could count on somebody
here. :)
Angus Manwaring
Really? I'd spotted the guy in various adverts quite a lot around the time
of the B5 episode, but I never appreciated it was the callow youth from
Colditz. I remember us taking the micky at school the next day after
seeing him in an early episode..... "But the Geneva Convention states
clearly..." It didn't seem to impress the teachers much.
And that name was surely a "Carry On" moment. :)
Richard Tibbetts
[...]
> I didn't quite agree with the Wiki viewpoint - for me there was no doubt
> that the Wing Commmander had lost his mind.
To be fair to Wikipedia, it did say *the script* indicated that.