An Englishman's Castle
| An Englishman's Castle | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Philip Mackie |
| Directed by | Paul Ciappessoni |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Innes Lloyd |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company(s) | BBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 5 June – 19 June 1978 |
An Englishman's Castle is a BBC television serial first broadcast in 1978, written by Philip Mackie and directed by Paul Ciappessoni. The story was set in an alternate history 1970s, in which Nazi Germany won World War II and England is run by a collaborationist fascist government. Peter Ingram (Kenneth More) is a writer for a soap opera (also called An Englishman's Castle), which is set in London in 1940 during the fictional Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation.
Plot
Peter Ingram is a successful London screenwriter, the creator of one of the most popular television shows in Nazi-occupied Europe, "An Englishman's Castle." It is a period soap opera, following an ordinary London family during an imagined German invasion of England in 1940. Ingram is oblivious to Nazi rule, which is hidden behind a façade of seemingly normal English daily life. The invasion was followed by several years of guerrilla warfare, which ended in a truce with Germany and an amnesty that enabled the resisters to resume normal daily life in return for accepting the reality of German occupation, which they generally did, feeling that further resistance was futile. Ingram's show furthers this feeling among the population in the present day (1978), and is therefore highly valuable to the authorities.
A kind of normality was restored, with few Germans to be seen in the streets. German rule is maintained mainly through an extensive system of collaborators, known as "delators". When dissidents are detained it is done by polite, soft-spoken English police, but they are then delivered to horrible torture chambers, kept discreetly out of sight.
Ingram gradually becomes aware of the real state of things. First, he encounters his superiors' firm objection to the inclusion of a character with a Jewish name in the series. The series is largely based on his own life, he argues, and the Jewish man was a real friend of his. However having such a character would violate the official policy of letting the extermination of the Jews remain forgotten, never discussed openly. Then, Ingram discovers that his mistress, Jill, one of the stars of his show, is secretly Jewish and a member of an underground resistance movement. Eventually, his loyalties are tested and he sides with the resistance. When the resistance decides to include the code word that will signal a nationwide insurrection in his show, due to its huge audience, he complies, allowing Sally to speak the phrase when it is filmed. However, in the closing scene, he locks himself in his office as the episode is broadcast, cuts off the feed just before her scene airs, and speaks the phrase himself instead, live over the air. As the sounds of a rebellion against the collaborationist government begin to come through the windows of his office, Ingram awaits the secret police, who break down the door and capture him.
Cast
- Kenneth More as Peter Ingram
- Isla Blair as Jill/"Sally"
- Anthony Bate as Harmer
- Kathleen Byron as Mrs. Ingram
- Noel Dyson as "Mrs. Worth"
- Rob Edwards as "Bert"
- Fiona Gray as Susan
- Nigel Havers as Mark Ingram
- Peter Hughes as "Mr. Worth"
- David Meyer as Henry Ingram
- David Roy Paul as Head waiter
- Brian Peck as Jimmy
- Philip Bond as Inspector
- Anthony Stafford as "Frank"