An Englishman's Castle
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''An Englishman's Castle'' is a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television serial first broadcast in 1978, written by Philip Mackie and directed by Paul Ciappessoni. The story was set in an
alternative history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...
1970s, in which
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
won
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
is run by a collaborationist fascist government. Peter Ingram (
Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. Films from this period ...
) is a writer for a soap opera (also called ''An Englishman's Castle''), which is set in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
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 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' ...
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 (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
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 female lover of a married man ** Royal mistress * Maîtresse-en-titre, official mistress of 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 group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...
. Eventually, his loyalties are tested and he sides with the resistance. When the resistance decides to include in his show the code word that will signal a nationwide
insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...
, 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 image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...
; when someone breaks down the door he turns to stare at the unseen intruder.


Cast

*
Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. Films from this period ...
as Peter Ingram * Isla Blair 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 Kathleen Elizabeth Fell in Manor Park (then part of Essex) to what she described as "stau ...
as Mrs. Ingram * Noel Dyson 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 and presenter. 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 Spielb ...
as Mark Ingram * Peter Hughes as John / "Mr. Worth" * David Meyer as Henry Ingram * Frederick Treves as Lonsdale * David Roy Paul as Head waiter * Brian Peck as Jimmy *
Philip Bond Philip John Bond (born 11 July 1966) 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 imprint Vertigo. ...
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) include stories, no ...


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 British English-language television shows