Secret Army is a three-season series about a WWII Belgian escape line for Allied airmen shot down over Europe. It's based in a Brussels restaurant, 'Le Candide', which is financed with British money and operated by Albert Foiret (Bernard Hepton) and a core staff, with various British agents and downed airmen coming and going. Frequent location shoots in France and Belgium, using quaint vehicles and gear more widely available then than today.
As a pure drama, Secret Army is pretty good most of the time. The whole operation and its personnel are constantly in jeopardy, and Clifford Rose as the Nazi commandant of Brussels (Kessler) is excellently evil. One or two of the episodes - for example, the one where bubonic plague breaks out - are *extremely* clunky, but the general scenes of battle and firefights are as good as anything you'd expect from the 70's, and there are plenty of romantic shenanigans to be getting on with. The suspense of each episode is mostly well done, and unexpected deaths add to the huge sense of danger that even 'ordinary' citizens would have had to deal with in WWII.
Politically, Secret Army takes a very strong anti-communist stand, rather than a general anti-Nazi viewpoint. A final retrospective (unbroadcast) episode set in 1969 was explicit about this. It doesn't go so far as to say 'Hitler wasn't so bad when you look at Stalin', but it's a very close thing. A spin-off, 'Kessler' about the later pursuit of um, Kessler, tones it down.
One massive, massive issue I haven't seen discussed about this show centred in an expensive restaurant where they have bar staff, singers, pianists, food delivery men, waitresses, and a Maitre D, is THERE IS NEVER A CHEF (Or KP). Sorry to shout, but none of the staff seems to have noticed either. Did they have Deliveroo in WWII?
As a pure drama, Secret Army is pretty good most of the time. The whole operation and its personnel are constantly in jeopardy, and Clifford Rose as the Nazi commandant of Brussels (Kessler) is excellently evil. One or two of the episodes - for example, the one where bubonic plague breaks out - are *extremely* clunky, but the general scenes of battle and firefights are as good as anything you'd expect from the 70's, and there are plenty of romantic shenanigans to be getting on with. The suspense of each episode is mostly well done, and unexpected deaths add to the huge sense of danger that even 'ordinary' citizens would have had to deal with in WWII.
Politically, Secret Army takes a very strong anti-communist stand, rather than a general anti-Nazi viewpoint. A final retrospective (unbroadcast) episode set in 1969 was explicit about this. It doesn't go so far as to say 'Hitler wasn't so bad when you look at Stalin', but it's a very close thing. A spin-off, 'Kessler' about the later pursuit of um, Kessler, tones it down.
One massive, massive issue I haven't seen discussed about this show centred in an expensive restaurant where they have bar staff, singers, pianists, food delivery men, waitresses, and a Maitre D, is THERE IS NEVER A CHEF (Or KP). Sorry to shout, but none of the staff seems to have noticed either. Did they have Deliveroo in WWII?