BBC radio drama - Great Escape: The Justice

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Ramiles, Jan 7, 2018.

  1. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    About to be (7th Jan 2018) on BBC Radio 4extra - Iplayer etc.
    (ps. says "Saturday Drama" due to its original Saturday scheduling on Radio 4)

    Great Escape: The Justice, Saturday Drama - BBC Radio 4

    Great Escape: The Justice
    Saturday Drama

    In the spring of 1943, a group of Air Force officers began work on an ambitious plan to tunnel their way out of a German POW camp called Stalag Luft Three. A year later the tunnel was ready and seventy-six made their escape. All but three were recaptured, but fifty were then systematically executed on orders from German High Command. This much was made internationally famous by Hollywood in the film The Great Escape, which mixes a meticulous depiction of the tunnelling plan with highly fictionalised American characters on motorbikes.

    But there is a stranger part of the story which starts where the film leaves off, and reveals the real history behind the nation-building legend. The British Government vowed to avenge the murders, and within weeks of the war's end, sent RAF investigators into the ruins of Germany, with orders to track down the killers, and bring them to exemplary justice.

    Award-winning dramatist Robin Brooks and internationally best-selling novelist Robert Radcliffe tell the extraordinary story of the escape, the murders, and the postwar manhunt in the chaos of divided Germany, through the eyes of one of the senior investigating officers: a straightforward by-the-book detective from Blackpool CID.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2018
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  2. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    The book mentioned above is 'Exemplary Justice' by Allen Andrews (Pub. 1976, with 300 pgs; paperback in 1978) and the key figure was Detective Sergeant McKenna, from Blackpool, who somehow got dispensation to join the RAF's Special Investigation Branch. Their work secured convictions on the murderers and identified seventy-two of the Gestapo thugs who committed them.

    It is available still, at a price and has complimentary, recent reviews here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exemplary-Justice-Allen-Andrews/dp/0245527753

    Needless to say the radio programme is no longer available.
     
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