Credited cast: | |||
John Hannah | ... | Arthur | |
Sophie Skelton | ... | Jess | |
Nicholas Farrell | ... | De La Haye | |
Amanda Abbington | ... | Ivy | |
Christian Hillborg | ... | Oberleutnant Braun | |
Brenock O'Connor | ... | Rex Forster | |
Basil Eidenbenz | ... | Freidrich | |
Jenny Seagrove | ... | Louisa Gould | |
Joanna David | ... | Maude Vibert | |
Susan Hampshire | ... | Elena | |
Gwen Taylor | ... | Lily Vibert | |
Peter Wight | ... | Rene | |
Ryan Wichert | ... | Gunther | |
Julian Kostov | ... | Bill | |
Elizabeth Carling | ... | Interpreter |
Based on the true story of Louisa Gould, the drama is set during World War II on the Nazi-occupied island of Jersey. Lou took in an escaped Russian POW and hid him over the war's course. The tension mounts as it becomes clear that Churchill will not risk an assault to recapture the British soil, and the island-community spirit begins to fray under pressures of hunger, occupation and divided loyalty. Against this backdrop, Lou fights to preserve her family's sense of humanity and to protect the Russian boy as if he was her own. Written by Anonymous
Hundreds of pows, enslaved Russians and Spanish workers held behind tall,barbed wire fences, starved and beaten by the Todt organisation, not 20 well fed men carrying the odd rock. Jersey, a ubiquitous landscape with granite farmhouses with walls edging every field. Home to a mostly rural population, having to farm twice as hard because the Germans took food for themselves. Locals who spoke in their own Jerriais dialect of Norman French to irritate the occupiers and spoke with a distinctive accent when speaking English. Appallingly no attempt whatsoever, to represent the uniqueness of an increasingly forgotten language and way of life and the associated culture that was the backdrop to this story, nor any attempt at realistic dialogue. The direction is so stilted, that I only struggled through this because I wanted to see how these events, which I was already aware of, were depicted. A missed oppurtunity.