Secret Army

This programme is a true masterpiece; possibly the best television series ever made by the BBC.

When I watched it as a young teenager, it was totally memorable and gripping. It is probably the only TV series of its kind from which I could recall every character and many of the plots some 25 or 30 years later. Some of the episodes toward the end of the final series were utterly gripping. The acting was outstanding; the writing fantastic, and the music and intro/credits I recall to this day with total clarity.

UDATE: Having just watched it again on DVD almost 30 years later, my view hasn't changed at all. No sense of disappointment here - this really is classic television at its very best. A clever, nuanced and absorbing series in every respect.

I wasn't even born when this series was first made. It was my mother who introduced me to the series on uk drama. She insisted that I 'give it a chance.'I am glad that I did!

During the first series the show showed little potential, the characters were stereotypical and shallow, such as Kessler, with his robotic like ways and constant determination to get one over on life line. The melodramatic content was so bad you could almost hear him shouting: 'I'll get you next time!' at the end of every episode. However somebody waved their magic wand at the start of the second series, because the show changed it's angle completely. With the dramatic exit of Yvette, (one of my favourite scenes in television)and the introduction of the Candide. We saw alot of changes for the characters. Kessler gained a love interest, and at last we could see his human side.Life line too showed it had some weak human traits, more often then not Albert's greed resulted in him ordering command just so that he could keep his precious restaurant. And when Monique was left in charge at the end of series two she turned into a bit of a boozer! More importantly, as the storylines developed and conspiracies got more complicated, life line didn't always end up on top, usually at the expense of poor Natalie or Monique.

The show came to prove that it was more about humans fight for survival. And less about the adventurous action man enthusiasm sometimes given to war in american films. What a shame that somebody made a spoof in the form of 'allo, 'allo. This became more famous than the original classic and now shadows it's brilliance. As my Mother insisted to me, I would insist to you: 'give it a chance, please!'

After seeing Secret Army recently for the first time on UK Drama, I was blown away by it's brilliance. I had read lots about it, but never realised that the show was as impressive as it is.

The characters are all very well drawn and the series views World War II from many angles. We don't only get to see the heroic and valiant efforts of the allies and resistance - the Germans, the Belgian police and ordinary citizens of the Low Countries are all represented, and more than anything else the series shows that the war affected different people in vastly differing ways. Nothing is black and white. Albert, our hero in the series, is a flawed hero: he can be greedy, dominating and possessive (Albert is a far cry from Hepton's role as a Nazi Commandant in Colditz, some years earlier). Major Brandt of the Luftwaffe is a German but not like Kessler, a Nazi. Brandt is simply a member of the armed forces who is only doing his job. Secret Army can be commended for not presenting the heroes and "villains" as mere stereotypes. Special mention must also go to Clifford Rose who play the head of the Gestapo in Belgium, Ludwig Kessler - the inspiration for Herr Flick in the spoof series Allo Allo. Rose is magnificent as Kessler and the character is written as a man who is completely and utterly devoted to the Fatherland and the Fuhrer.

Secret Army, along with other greats like Colditz and I, Claudius is an example of the great drama serials that the BBC no longer produce. These days we seem to be stuck in a never-ending cycle of police and hospital drama serials. Secret Army was transmitted at prime-time on BBC1 when it was first shown: how many period dramas do we ever see on our screens these days? At very best we get a Jane Austin type adaptation, and that would only ever be broadcast on a Sunday night.

Why don't the BBC take the chance to make something as daring as Secret Army? I'm sure that a viewing public tired of the same old shows would thank them for it.

I hope that UK Drama will show the spin-off series Kessler now!

I too am "revisiting" this programme on UK Drama and it truly is a gem though you do realise where "Allo Allo" came from at times - I hope now that UK Drama have shown this twice that they show the follow up "Kessler" made in 1981 - i can vaguely recall it.

I first saw this programme as a child watching with my parents when it was broadcast in the late 1970s. I found it compelling then, though I did not understand some of the nuances. But having watched it again recently on UKTV Gold I have to say that it is one of the very best dramas of its era, and indeed of the subsequent period.

It never took a simplistic view of the people involved, and developed the characters over time. None of the moral situations the characters find themselves in are presented in black and white terms. The very final episodes, when liberation is close and retribution is being sought against people considered to be "collaborators", are so dramatic, and I will not forgot the tone of the final episode set on the day the war in Europe ended.

Marvellous.

Sarah