Colditz (1972-1974)

Cafe Society
1

BBC series I had never heard of that I discovered today. Features American actors as well such as Robert Wagner and Dan O Herlihy (Who apparently is actually Irish). Filmed on videotape, so it doesn’t look so great.

I found interesting:

  1. It actually has a conclusion

  2. No subtitles were used. The one ep i watched, ( the last one) had a decent amount of German used.

  3. I thought it a little silly that the 52 year old O Herlihy was playing a prisoner…but after research, the guy he’s based on was a 48 year old paratrooper.

2

Sounds interesting. Where were you able to watch it? Netflix?

3

There were two seasons of it as I recall. Most of the scripts and characters were based on genuine events although some characters were composites.

4

There are some episodes free on Youtube [I’m not sure if the whole series is there]. But you can start with Series 1, Episode 1 at:

5

The book is excellent, if you want more to the story.

6

It’s very good. Saw some of the repeats as a kid and then one of the UK channels did repeat the whole thing in the last decade or so.

I’d be very cautious about some of the accuracy. Quite a lot is fictionalised for TV purposes. For instance, I think the classic episode with the prisoner feigning insanity in order to be repatriated, only to go insane as a result is basically made up.

The accompanying board game is however completely authentic. Now who wants to be the dupe who volunteers as the German commandant?

7

That was the episode that everybody remembers. Especially the twist at the end. Though elements of it appear in Reid’s book - again the character is a composite.

The Earl of Harewood commented on his time in Colditz

“I often wonder if some of the others, like me, watched with fascination the TV series* Colditz*, which reflected none of the disagreeable side of the castle but quite a lot of its camaraderie, caught some of the physical attributes of the place and dealt with many of the legends in a perfectly plausible if fictionalised manner.”