I was born in 1977 and from the city of Basra in southern Iraq..I read the book of the Castle of Coulteds in 1992..It was a very interesting book..A while ago my friend suggested to me that I watch this work and I enjoyed it very much..Greetings to everyone who reads my comment
Quite surreal watching this again after 51 years. It made quite an impression on me in 1972, and stands up remarkably well in 2023. Many, many thanks for posting it.
Episodes like this are what separate Colditz from other series and shows. Hartwig for example, was dealing with the trauma of his own brother and took it out on Marsh, before coming to care for him. An episode tackling mental health ahead of it's time.
" On behalf of my husband I wish to thank you all and give my special thanks to the German soldier that befriended him".... at these words tears sprang to my eyes and streamed down... It is the ultimate kindness that moves me to the core..every seldom time I stumble upon it.
This series didn't do the Hollywood - "You are our prisoner - you vill comply" nonsense - they portrayed both sides as human - which they were - I wish the BBC employed writers like this today - Imagine what this series would have looked like today - Black prisoners in Colditz outwitting not only the Wermacht but the white prisoners also - there were no black prisoners in Colditz - come on I dare you BBC - You'd like that wouldn't you?
I can join others here in saying that the actor playing Hartwig deserves special recognition for his difficult role. Portraying insanity as Marsh is one thing, but reacting to it in a believable manner is another. This episode taxes a large amount of reasonable timeline for the series as a whole. One thing I have found about this series is that the acting of all the cast is magnificient.
It is such a long time ago since I watched Colditz on TV, but I remember this episode in particular. It is a frightening example on how a seemingly good idea can go horribly wrong. Very well acted as you would expect from this "A" list of TV actors.
Same here pal , I was 12 - 13 when I saw this one too . It stuck with me all of these years and most of the staff at the psychiatric hospital I worked at all remembered it .
I found it disturbing as a child as I did when I watched it lately - which I think is what the writers, director, actors were aiming for - so much better horror than the American crap - You don't understand the human psyche - your horror films are a comedy. Therefore what you fear is a joke - but it isn't.
This should be played in medical school... Absolutely stunning,so well acted,very truthful... It happened! Netflix... Hope you're watching??? This is what good drama is.. Not your plastic crap,with all the same actors in similar plots.....
Out of all of the episodes this is the most moving. Extremely good, I like the emotional attachment Hartwig came to have. Shows how human and frail we all are no matter in any position of life we find ourselves in.
Hartwig was the narration. When Ulmann questioned him he said that he was certain that Marsh was faking( when he was), but wasn’t sure any more. By the time that he bonded with him, Marsh was already gone. It would have been very difficult to portray Marsh’s descent with the very limited dialogue for the character alone, but there was an extra little twist at the end when Hartwig is observed grinding his fist against the wall edge. This took a piece out of him as well. (Edit: an absolute gut-punch on the second viewing.)
That episode was absolutely devastating. Heartbreaking but at the same time a beautiful depiction of humanity when Sgt Hartwig realised the level of Marsh’s situation.
Being with a genuinely very mentally ill person was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life,as I knew him before when he was"normal"... He turned up at our door and seemed fine,for about five minutes. Then,his behaviour suddenly became so bizarre,it was a truly horrible experience,both sad and frightening. We found out that he had escaped from a secure unit for the dangerously ill that we didn't even know he was in. He came straight to us,I still don't know why?
I was recently trying to describe this episode to someone who had not seen this series, and I gratefully found this and recommended it to him. My friend watched it, and said it was one of the most upsetting things he had ever seen and wished he had never seen it. I re-watched it and it all came flooding back how upset I was too when I'd first seen it. I won't be watching this ever again. Superb, moving.
I always think 34:22 is the point he starts to lose it for real, seeing the French guy escape in one leap while he is going through all that for months... it destroys him.
The Wing Commander was quite a bit older than the other POWs. He may have gotten the idea of faking the illness because he may have already started actually becoming ill. He was homesick, wanted to get out and still he remained in the camp for at least half a year after starting to simulate. He really was fed up with everything. Up till that time he came up with the idea, his military discipline had kept him from snapping. But after he was allowed to let go of all inhibitions, this probably accellerated the process. When you think about it, what sane person would agree to act like this all the time, for months and months on end? When Lt. Colonel Preston reminded him that he must keep up the act 'untill the end' I started foreseeing that this might end in tragedy. What I find so plausible and great about the performances (of all actors involved) is that when he marches out in front of the German General in his 'fool's costume,' the German General does not act offended. He is aware that the person in front of him is quite ill.
Yes German Officers and soldiers were and are human, have you not been to Germany? - They are very close to normal British people - not chavs or immigrants I might add - apart from the Turkish that Murkel let in.
I can remember watching this when i was a kid with my dad. My dad had to explain to me what had happened the Marsh. Out of all the episodes, when i think of Colditz series I think of Marsh. Brilliant performance. I am in my fifties now, and still remember him from when i was at school. Weird how some things you just so remember. I remember liking the commandant with the blue eyes, to me he just was not harsh, although his character portrayed him that way, as a child I really liked him.
This has to still be the greatest episode of any drama series ever made. I saw this when I was about 8 years old when they used to show a 10 minutes bit with Pat Reid after the episode. I'm now 58 years old and this remains in my memory all these years later. This broke me when I first watched it , it still has the power to do it now.
A fantastic episode of a really great TV series. I was young when I saw this for the first time and being almost 59 now, I was watching this in English, with sub-titles, and I can recall as if it was yesterday the last scene. " I absolutely forbid any further escape attempt on those lines. " I do believe I learned, or at least remembered quite vividly the verb to forbid on this very occasion.
A brilliant episode though difficult to watch.... Michael Bryant is superb in his portrayal of the wing commander who initially feigns madness then over a year slips into madness...... I must also pay tribute to Bernard Kay as the sympathetic German corporal whose own brother is in a psychiatric hospital.....I can understand why this touching episode won awards..... I believe it is based on a true story......
What I find a bit confusing is, did Wing Commander Marsh actually go insane due to his brain thinking that was the norm, or did he act it out to the end. At the end of the programme, the SBO reads the letter explaining that Marsh was sent to a mental hospital, but was he genuine? If you think about it, if Marsh did go back to Britain and then become sane again, wouldn't he be put back in the forces in Europe again? If that was the case, then he would have to stay insane until the war ended and even stay in the mental hospital for another couple of year to even make sure the British authorities convinced he was insane and that he wouldn't get in trouble for deserting the army. If he decided to become sane again, he would be put back in the army again, and if he was brought back to Europe, he could be captured by the Germans again, who knows who Wing Commander Marsh is, and if he was sentenced to prison, especially if he was sent Colditz, then he could destroy the chances of repatriation for anyone else, anywhere in Germany, causing him more grief than anything else. That was why the SBO said to Marsh that he didn't want the other lads chances of genuine repatriation for genuine cases of insanity. I believe that the end of the programme could either be that Marsh did end up genuinely becoming insane, or he had to stay insane until the war ended and years after so that he wouldn't ruin the chances of other men getting repatriation. It's difficult to tell.
I remember seeing this episode of this superb series as a school kid it has always stuck in my mind especially the bowl of porridge over the head scene
The weakness inherent in this episode is that everyone seems to assume that the letter at the end is telling the truth, when clearly it is exactly the message that might be sent (knowing the Germans would read it) to complete the deception and protect the "process."
If the escape had been a success, no letter would have been sent at all - precisely to avoid any such confusion. The prisoners knew it was for real, which is why any further attempt at using the method were forbidden. A sane Marsh would have foreseen that problem and not allowed it. At the very least any such plan would have been agreed prior to the "escape". So... no. :-)
Not so. British Intelligence would have foreseen that and inserted a comment in the letter that the Colonel knew to be incorrect but the Germans wouldn't notice. The letter was genuine.
It's possible, but there was a detail in the letter - the institution to which Marsh was committed. German agents, or fellow travellers (perhaps a Portuguese or Spanish fascist within their embassies, or an Irishman with Nationalist sympathies, or someone after a dishonest quid) could check it out. However, the letter did not serve to protect the process, it served to terminate it for good.
Thanks for the upload, my favourite TV series, back in the day when they said British TV was best in the world. Now it is just Trash TV, copying America.
An episode of a 70s tv drama that is more powerful than anything I've seen produced on tv or from the film industry in decades. 21st century producers could learn a lot from vintage tv drama, with its cardboard sets. Throwing cash and CGI at poor scripts and predictable, shopworn themes isn't enough. I love a lot of 60s and 70s tv drama but there is something particularly impactful and haunting about this episode of Colditz. First class.
Hollywood is trash - I read all those comics as a child and enjoyed them but I can't take Captain America seriously as an adult. Am I supposed to take it as a comedy? It isn't that either.
Remember,when this was made,most of the real prisoners were still alive and had a hand in the production. They wouldn't have wanted any exaggeration,apart from some obvious artistic licence,it's played pretty much to the facts.
From the dialogue, it is correct to assume that the letter received was a statement of the true facts.Difficult storyline and very poignant. - Class drama!
43:57 - You will notice Bernard Hepton (Kommandant) had to redub his line here. You can tell, by the change in temp of the recording. There must have been a fault on the original and Bernard would have had to redub it later.
This is the 2nd time I've watched this all the way through. (I've also watched bits and pieces of it). WONDERFUL Acting by several people, including the Corporal!!! However, at the end, with the letter from the wife.... this would be the sort of thing that British Intelligence would have her send knowing that the letter would be read by several German Officers, including (probably) doctors. That way other prisoners could use a similar ruse to get out. Of course, the SBO and others would have no way of knowing this! In addition, it does show that people, including war veterans Do Have A Point Of No Return mentally!! I've seen a few of these poor souls in the local Psych Ward of the VA Hospital were I take cake or pie every holiday that I can! "The Cost Of Freedom Can Be Seen At Your Local VA Hospital"
Fascinating insight into method acting as an escape tactic, a strategic failure in this programme. As a coping mechanism for life in the 21st century things are different, neurosis is the new normal! Mental health issues are fashionable now.... I am suffering (aha)from PTSD, pre Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Anybody notice the port undercarriage fall out of model BF109 when handed by German Corporal to Wing Commander Marsh ,you can hear it fall back into box.
From the Attempts to escape Oflag IV-C wikipage A member of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), Captain Ion Ferguson wrote a letter to an Irish friend in which he suggested that Ireland join the war; the letter was stopped by the censors, but his wish to be moved elsewhere was granted. he certified a number of prisoners as insane; they were consequently repatriated. He then convinced the Germans of his own insanity and returned to Britain the same way
My guess is...that it is Maria Landowska playing the Bach. There is a recording she made in France where the sound of artillery in the distance can be heard..so I am told.
No because it would ruin the process, as it did. If he was sane, he would want other prisoners to escape on the same grounds and thus wouldn't send a letter that would discourage it.
This is brutal,but a fact..... In the 1960's,a person suspected of mental illness would be given a mirror by a Dr and watched by the nurses. 9/10 times,they got the right answer within half an hour. This was practised in Scotland as a matter of course.
Truth & Justice Thank you. Unfortunately, now that fifteen months have elapsed I've no idea what the episode or my comment were about. Thanks again anyway. (I expect you're right.) Cheers ;)
I think the late actor Heath Ledger went the same way, he use to speak of being unable to switch off from his characters after the days filming, as if the character had got inside him and he turned to pills to try to get some sleep and overdosed.
22:46 Still acting. From this point on there is no further evidence of acting but we can't confirm it until the SBO reads the letter. Perhaps the Germans won't look so stupid.
