The Silver Sword (1957–1958) User Reviews

Comments on 'the Silver Sword' by the child of a Pole who escaped from a concentration camp to fight with the Allies

[neilburr69 · 9/10 · 26 May 2012]

I first saw 'The Silver Sword' series on t.v. some 50 years ago. The fact that my recollections of it remain so vivid leads me to conclude that the story affected me profoundly.

As World War II began my father was abducted by the Nazi's from the fields of his family's farm in Poland. Eventually he escaped from a concentration camp. With the help of many people (including Germans) who had chosen to fight Hitler's tyranny he eventually joined the Allies. As part of the Sicily landings he fought north through Monte Casino and on (in Churchill's immortal words) to "the 'soft under-belly of Europe".

Maybe the empathy I felt with 'The Silver Sword' was founded in the Polish connection. Whatever, the character, Jan, conveyed the mind-set of a youth in the midst of the prevailing madness well enough to implant a fear which even now causes the odd nightmare of being chased by Nazis.

Unlike Jan, it took my father 25 years to re-unite with his family. However, one has to remember the complications of finances, naturalisation, foreign travel, the general destruction wrought upon the European infrastructure etc. etc. which posed a very real obstacle to doing so.

'The Silver Sword' is the serialisation of a powerful story which, quite rightly, has been adopted and exploited by the teaching profession as a tool for exploring man's inhumanity to man.

Memories of the serial

[barbara-16-444535 · 8/10 · 2 July 2015]

I was only aged 5 when I watched the serial on the small screen, but it made an impression on me and much later I read and enjoyed the book. It's the music that accompanied it that I remember so well and every now and then I try to track it down by listening to classical music on you tube. It was stirring music which I'm sure was a genuine classical piece, not specially composed. I would love to see the serial again. I remember the ruins of Warsaw were quite graphic, and in those days there were still many ruined parts of cities (including Liverpool) where they could have filmed. It was good to read previous reviews and they echoed my thoughts about it. Perhaps I should try contacting the BBC to find an answer.

It was gripping

[Wilmetunderwood · 10/10 · 2 June 2009]

I don't remember it very well because I was really young, but I do remember the sombreness and high seriousness of the desolate war-torn setting and the children's epic journey. I have since read the book many times and found it extremely gentle, not pushing the tragic elements even slightly, but as an adult I can see that it does have tragedy, however understated, and even as a small child that was what the film conveyed, though I didn't know it by that name at the time. I have since learned that the real Edek did not survive his terrible experiences and the TB that he is suffering throughout the latter half of the story. I would love to see the film again; it is impossible to judge how it would stand up, but the impression it left although so sketchy is still potent. My main clear recollection is of Jan, played by Frazer Hines as I now know, saying (probably at the end of an episode) "The sword will take us!!" Then for dramatic emphasis he plunged the silver sword into a table top. My friend's mother said something like "what a thing to do to a good table..." She was tongue-in-cheek I rather think, but at the time all I felt was that she could not have grasped the emotional power of that moment.

The silver sword serial

[mikejackson-39765 · 10/10 · 29 October 2016]

I would have been 8 or 9 when I watched the Silver Sword on TV. It had a lasting impression on me all my life. I searched for it on line for years hoping that it might be available on a DVD but never did find it, then a few years ago I found that you can watch the final episode at the National media museum in Bradford so on one of my trips home to the UK we drove to Bradford to tour the museum and I got to watch the final episode in a little booth, it's the episode where they are reunited with their parents. It was a great day and the museum is an interesting place to visit. I since bought the book which was written by Ian Serraillier and enjoyed the read.

An old Man writes ....

[oliverdearlove · 10/10 · 19 November 2017]

I was six when this was broadcast Jan (Frazer Hines) later turned up as a Dr Who assistant and now is in Emmerdale

Altho some reviewers had said this is based on fact Ian Tressailler wrote it from an armchair post war in London. The reprint I bought had a sarcastic account by T's daughter about how it DIDN'T win a book award on publication but then did become an icon of the Fifties.

The production values were pretty low - the characters came in from the shadows to deliver their lines - with perhaps a stick of furniture with a silver sword on it

Altho it is a children's book about a journey, we all thought it was about what it would be like to be occupied after another war. In our village, there were a lot of Eastern Eupropean DPs and one jumped out of a bedroom window onto the lawn when we hared down the stairs and out of the front door and confronted us. Just like in a scene from The Silver Sword. The smuggling of eggs etc in the hollowed out telegraph pole and the stabbing of the child in the bale of hay in the back of the cart were all discussed by us earnestly as tho we would soon be doing it

unforgettable over the last fifty years.

An Oldie

[screenman · 6/10 · 6 March 2009]

Don't recollect too much about this series as I was only a kid at the time.

It was based in occupied Poland, I believe. A family had found themselves separated from their parents and the drama entailed their re-discovery of each other. 'Jan' was an orphan scavenger who had visited their wrecked house at some stage and found a letter-opener - the titular 'silver sword' - which he produced when the family coincidentally met him. They joined forces, and afterwards I believe their parents adopted him.

it was a fairly downbeat drama, with the inevitable lick of Nazi cruelty thrown in. But it had a happy ending, which is more than can be said for most Polish families of the time.

Somehow it's got 9 stars from 9 votes, but so far no comments. These people must have better memories but less spare time than me. It was one of the first programmes I 'got into' on television, and the actors became typecast in my juvenile mind every time I saw them afterwards.