An Englishman's Castle
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''An Englishman's Castle'' is a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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television serial first broadcast in 1978, written by
Philip Mackie Philip Mackie (26 November 1918 – 23 December 1985) was a British film and television screenwriter. He was born in Salford in Lancashire, England. He graduated in 1939 from University College London and worked for the Ministry of Informat ...
and directed by Paul Ciappessoni. The story was set in an
alternative history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...
1970s, in which
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
won
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
is run by a collaborationist fascist government. Peter Ingram (
Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy '' Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. Films from this per ...
) is a writer for a soap opera (also called ''An Englishman's Castle''), which is set in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
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 German invasion may refer to: Pre-1900s * German invasion of Hungary (1063) World War I * German invasion of Belgium (1914) * German invasion of Luxembourg (1914) World War II * Invasion of Poland * German invasion of Belgium (1940) * G ...
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 the feeling among the population in the present (1978) and so is highly valuable to the authorities. A kind of normal was restored, with few Germans to be seen in the streets. German rule is maintained mainly through an extensive system of collaborators, known as "
delator Delator (plural: ''delatores'', feminine: ''delatrix'') is Latin for a denouncer, one who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed. Secular Roman law In Roman history, it was properly one who gave notice (''deferre'') t ...
s". When dissidents are detained it is done by polite, soft-spoken English police but they are then delivered to torture chambers, kept discreetly out of sight. Ingram gradually becomes aware of the real state of things. He encounters his superiors' firm objection to the inclusion of a character with a
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
name in the series. The series is largely based on his life, he argues and the Jewish man was a real friend. Having such a character would violate the official policy of letting the extermination of the Jews remain forgotten, never discussed openly. Ingram discovers that his
mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...
, Jill, one of the stars of his show, is secretly Jewish and a member of a clandestine
resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...
. Eventually, his loyalties are tested and he sides with the resistance. When the resistance decides to include in his show the
code word In communication, a code word is an element of a standardized code or protocol. Each code word is assembled in accordance with the specific rules of the code and assigned a unique meaning. Code words are typically used for reasons of reliability, ...
that will signal a nationwide
insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...
, due to its huge audience, he complies, allowing Sally (Jill) to speak the phrase when it is filmed. 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 Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of ...
; when someone breaks down the door he turns to stare at the unseen intruder.


Cast

*
Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy '' Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. Films from this per ...
as Peter Ingram *
Isla Blair Isla Blair Glover (born 29 September 1944) is a British actress and singer. She made her first stage appearance in 1963 as Philia in the London debut of '' A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum''. Early life and education Isla Blair w ...
as Jill / "Sally" * Anthony Bate as Harmer *
Kathleen Byron Kathleen Elizabeth Fell (11 January 1921 – 18 January 2009), known professionally as Kathleen Byron, was an English actress. Early life Byron was born in Manor Park (then part of Essex) to what she described as "staunch working-class social ...
as Mrs. Ingram *
Noel Dyson Elsie Noël Dyson (23 December 1916 – 29 June 1995) was an English character actress Dyson played a number of roles in theatre, television and films (including in telemovies) but is best remembered as a versatile character actress in TV seri ...
as Connie / "Mrs. Worth" * Rob Edwards as Adrian / "Bert Worth" * Fiona Gray as Susan *
Nigel Havers Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielberg war dram ...
as Mark Ingram * Peter Hughes as John / "Mr. Worth" *
David Meyer David Meyer (born 24 July 1947) is an English actor. He is the twin of Anthony Meyer who has often appeared alongside him in film. He is best known for his role as a knife-throwing circus performer and assassin in the 1983 James Bond film ''Octo ...
as Henry Ingram * Frederick Treves as Lonsdale * David Roy Paul as Head waiter * Brian Peck as Jimmy *
Philip Bond Philip J. Bond (born 11 July 1966, in Lancashire) is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on ''Deadline'' magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics impr ...
as Inspector * Anthony Stafford as Arthur / "Frank Worth"


DVD

According to the DVD cover, the series was released by Simply Media and the BBC in 2015.


See also

*
Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II A hypothetical military victory of the Axis powers over the Allies of World War II (1939–1945) is a common topic in speculative literature. Works of alternative history (fiction) and of counterfactual history (non-fiction), including stories ...


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Englishman's Castle, An Television series about World War II alternate histories 1970s British drama television series 1978 British television series debuts 1978 British television series endings BBC television dramas English-language television shows