At mealtime, Einstein complains about the soup to Big F; it really is vile now. This gets him a week in the cooler for his pains. On the parade ground Owly refuses to shout “here”; it's bloody stupid he says since the SS aren't around. Big F gives him two weeks in the cooler and Barton starts to roughly manhandle him off until Chump intervenes. “Chump, my men have loaded rifles,” Big F informs him. “You wouldn't order them to shoot me?” “i might have no alternative.' “You wouldn't.” “If they realise you're seriously affecting the stability of the situation, they might have no alternative.” “My God,” Chump replies, realising how far Big F and some of the other men like Barton are prepared to go. Big F manhandles Chump over to the edge of the parade ground and orders the guards to fire over his head as a warning; Barton aims directly at him! Luckily for Chump - and for Big F too - Oberst von Steffenberg arrives for his surprise inspection just at this moment. The roll call is aborted and the inspection continues. The food at the cookhouse is excellent this time - in other words, disgusting - and the cooler contains Owly, Einstein and Barrington, who is crying at his enforced absence from Stefan. This spectacular turnaround causes von Steffenberg to praise Big F as he leaves the camp, but he tells him he will still return.

Later, when Einstein has been released from the cooler, Chump tells him there's a committee meeting that evening and they want to co-opt him onto it. There are vacancies now with Shorty and Big F no longer a part of it; they haven't resigned, but they're not being told about it as Chump does not trust them now. He's calling the meeting because the situation in the camp is now worse than when the Germans were running it and as far as he can see there's only one course open to them - they have to escape!

The escape committee of Chump, Izzy, Owly, Prof and Einstein come to terms with this idea. Chump suggests that they dig tunnels again and Einstein suggests that as they've already got tunnels, why not use them? It's pointed out that Big F knows where those are, but Einstein thinks they're giving him too much credit; would he even believe that they would attempt escape from their fellow Allies, let alone use the tunnels they dug together? Chump agrees; it'll be quicker to use them. They decide just to re-activate Julian  or as Chump renames it in honour of the way he stood up to Big F on the parade ground, Owly! He knows it would also annoy Big F if Julian was renamed after the New Zealander that he keeps treating as a second class citizen! They need a replacement for Shorty to provide documents and Owly volunteers. When questioned about his ability, he proves that Big F's earlier suspicion about how he ever became an officer is actually true; he's a forger and forged his way into the Air Force! If he can do that, he's got to be good enough for them!

Oberst von Steffenberg arrives on another inspection and decides to check the huts for signs of tunnelling. He fails to find anything, and as he leaves Big F can't help but pass comment to Chump about it. “He thinks you might be trying to escape, little does he know!” and leaves, little knowing himself that that's exactly what they are doing, right under his nose! Von Steffenberg tells Big F to prepare himself to leave for Berlin; the Fuehrer is depressed and he is going to suggest that since no one has escaped from the camp since he took over, Big F be awarded the Iron Cross, the highest German war decoration, by the Fuehrer personally to cheer him up. “I don't imagine when the war began you expected to be awarded the Iron Cross,” von Steffenberg observes to which Big F replies as his car moves away, “you can say that again!”

'Owly' has been unblocked, the weather is in their favour and the committee agree that they go tomorrow night. Izzy suggests that they stay; the Allies are surely on their way, but Owly points out the war was supposed to have been over by Christmas 1940 and it didn't happen, he doesn't want to wait around. Neither does Chump, especially as he wants the satisfaction of dropping Big F right in it. Prof reckons the “Germans” will come with them when they escape anyway.

While taking a walk, Chump is approached by Big F, who admits he's uneasy about the big day tomorrow. Chump thinks he's found out about the escape, and Big F's surprised he knows about his trip, which is what he's referring to; Big F is too stupid to realise what Chump is referring to. When he tells Chump about his receiving the Iron Cross, Chump has the last laugh; the irony of an English soldier being anointed with the highest German military decoration. The real irony is that he's getting it for having no one escape from the camp  just as they are all escaping from the camp!

Next morning he sets off for Berlin while preparations are made for the night's escape. Chump is puzzled by Einstein; he has taken the Kommandant's parrot and intends to use it like a carrier pigeon. The idea is that parrots are better because they can hold the message in their head - to Chump's amazement the bird squawks “Allies escaping from Stalag Luft, help, help!” Still, they'll just have to hope he doesn't fly to the Germans and give their plan away as Einstein releases him.

Night falls and the escape is on. Owly opens up his namesake and they all file down into the tunnel. In Berlin, Big F arrives at the bunker. Hitler is getting a massage from Eva Braun as Big F is shown in to see him. He is presented with the Iron Cross, for which Big F thanks him. The Fuehrer tells him he is a good man, like Goering, like Himmler, but otherwise he is surrounded by useless men; Big F can sympathise, thinking of some of the less than top-drawer chaps back at the camp. Hitler is also tired of trying to rule the world; he started as a painter and a painter he will end up being. The incredulous Big F is asked if he would like to see the new colour charts he has devised, as an air raid begins overhead, shaking the bunker!

Owly is the last to go down his namesake, leaving his false moustache behind and extinguishes the candles. As everybody emerges on the outside, a tank rolls up  an Allied tank! After establishing their credentials, Einstein asks if a parrot told them to come here and the Allied officer tells them they did receive a parrot, but there was no message and all it said was 'Heil Hitler' so they strangled it, much to Einstein's distress! As Owly appears, the officer asks “Is this man English too?” to which he replies, “No, I'm a New Zealander!” “Ah, bad luck,” the officer says to which Owly rolls his eyes and replies, “Oh, not you too!” The tank then advances on the camp, but Chump's men stop it, telling them there's no real Germans in there and Shorty and the other men manage to convince them with choruses of “Land of My Fathers”, “Land of Hope and Glory” and “Peter Piper Picked A Peck Of Pickled Pepper”! The officer asks where are the real Germans and Chump tells him it's a long story…

Back in Berlin, Hitler is showing Big F his colour charts; swastikas painted by the Fuehrer himself! However, after Big F praises them, Hitler announces he is bored by yet another yes man and orders him to leave.  In the morning when he exits the Bunker onto a bombsite, Big F is accosted by an elderly destitute German asking for money for soup; it turns out to be Henrich! He never made it out of the country because he lost his papers, and has had to stay in the worst places imaginable since; Big F ruined his war. Big F reflects that he hasn't had a good war either, and shows him the Iron Cross he's just received for running a harsher camp than Henrich ever did. The former officer asks after his parrot and it's just as well Big F doesn't know and can't tell him the truth! He takes his leave of him, as Henrich reminds him that he will take him up on his offer to look him up in Weybridge…

Returning to the camp by commandeered horse and cart, Big F finds all his men and the Allied tank leaving. The Allied officer asks who he is and Chump tells him he's the German Kommandant. Although he implores them to speak up for him, no one will help Big F - he reminds Einstein he's a Price Egerton and to think of his father, but Einstein's father is a miserable sod he's told and Big F is no friend of Einstein's. After the attempt ,the Allied officer congratulates him on his 'act', but say he's wary of 'racial stereotypes'. He knows of one full-proof way to find out though, and catching him unaware thumps Big F hard in the stomach. Unfortunately, having psyched himself up for so long, he responds instinctively in German and is surrounded by men with rifles to take him into custody while his men wait for transport to get to the camp and return them all to Blighty.

About the writer

This stylish parody of the original escape film was broadcast once only by ITV on 27th October 1993 and came from the prolific pen of writer David Nobbs. Educated at Marlborough College and St John's College, Cambridge, he worked as a reporter on The Sheffield Star then moved to London to write for David Frost and That Was The Week That Was, The Two Ronnies and The Les Dawson Show before embarking on a writing career that would allow him to become one of the most successful tv writers in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. As a broadcaster Nobbs collaborated on the television play The Signal Box of Grandpa Hudson with Peter Tinniswood, but on his own his prolific output of plays and series include Cupid's Darts, Our Young Mr Wignal, Dog Food Dan and The Camarthen Cowboy, Cuts, The Glamour Girls, The Hello Goodbye Man, Fairly Secret Army, A Bit of a Do,  Rich Tea and Sympathy, The Life & Times Of Henry Pratt and Love on a Branch Line and his films include the adaptation of Gentlemen's Relish starring Billy Connolly.

In 1990, Nobbs won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for the top British TV Comedy Screenwriter, largely and belatedly for his seminal series in the Seventies, The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin starring Leonard Rossiter; he would return in the Nineties with a follow up, The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, which he adapted into a novel as he had the original series (as The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Return of Reginald Perrin and The Better World of Reginald Perrin). More of his literary work include Ostrich Country, A Piece Of The Sky Is Missing and The Cucumber Man. Recently he also produced an autobiography, I Didn't Get Where I Am Today, quoting the late John Barron's character in …Perrin, C.J.

A solid cast and crew

It's entirely possible that the quality of the script attracted many of the actors to it, as coupled with Nobbs' own reputation it would be a good project to be associated with. Stephen Fry, fresh from his role as Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster, went back to an earlier success and basically makes Forrester a more intelligent version of his Colonel Melchett from Blackadder Goes Forth, and as the privately educated officer pitches home perfectly the injustices of the British class system. Geoffrey Palmer (who also guested in Blackadder Goes Forth as Field Marshal Haig) brings a likeably quality to Kommandant Henrich Stubenhalle, giving it much weight and pathos and making you feel for the man far more than you can for Forrester. He had also worked with Nobbs before on similar subject matter in Fairly Secret Army as Major Truscott and with ...Luft's director in Christabel.

Unfortunately there is no reunion on-screen as such between him and his screen son (unless you count a gate of barbed wire inbetween them as a scene together.) Nicholas Lyndhurst had previously been son Adam opposite Palmer's Ben with Wendy Craig in Butterflies, and at this point his star was just starting to ascend in its own right away from plonker Rodney in Only Fools and Horses. Stalag Luft also saw a halfway house on the subject matter for Lyndhurst; he had previously appeared in The Piglet Files as a reluctant secret agent for Yorkshire Television and the repeat of the first series of his wartime success Goodnight Sweetheart was about to be repeated. As 'Chump' Cosgrove, he comes across as serious, practical and intelligent, sick of Big F's class distinction and unsure of what he'll find when he returns home, making for a very believable portrayal of the imprisoned airman.

The supporting cast of David Bamber as “Prof” (we never learn his real name), Richard Bonneville as Squadron Leader Barton, Marston Bloom as “Einstein” Price Egerton, Todd Boyce as “Owly” Morrison, Roger Hyams as “Izzy” Levinson, Wayne Cater as “Shorty” Evans, Simon Donald as “Haggis” Barrington and Tim McMullan as Donaldson are very much true to their big screen equivalents - although of course there is a notable absence of a Steve McQueen type - with some comedic, and at times risqué, additions to character and type. On the side of actual Germans outside the camp, Benedick Blythe as Oberst von Steffenberg is an intelligent but nasty SS man and therefore does the role justice in every scene. The only disappointment, purely from the lack of involvement in the story rather than his performance, is the Fuehrer himself, as played by Sam Kelly and no stranger to the German side of things from his earlier role in successful wartime sitcom 'Allo, 'Allo. His persona of a tired, frustrated leader who longs for nothing more than a quiet life painting with Eva Braun by his side is probably one of the few portrayals of the German leader ever that you can truly sympathise with.

Produced during the late spring/early summer of 1993 for an autumn schedule screening, it was directed by Adrian Shergold and produced by David Reynolds. Shergold had started out as an actor, appearing in various shows and series including Softly, Softly, Mandog, The Sweeney, Thriller, Poldark, The Naked Civil Servant and Rock Follies of '77 before switching to directing in 1980, starting episodes of Juliet Bravo. Others included Christabel and Inspector Morse and it was after directing The Life and Times of Henry Pratt, also written by Nobbs, that he was picked for Stalag Luft. More recent projects have included Eureka Street and the Craig Cash comedy Early Doors.

David Reynolds started as a director and graduated to producer in the mid 1980's. His first directing job was on The Boy Dominic, and after the success of that he continued on series such as The Sandbaggers, The Wilde Alliance and The Onedin Line. It was while on working on Juliet Bravo in 1980 that he met Shergold, attached on his first directing assignment and when Stalag Luft came along, Shergold became his director of choice. Other directing credits included The Beiderbecke Affair (with James Bolam who he'd directed on When The Boat Comes In), Stay Lucky and A Bit of A Do, both as producer/director. The latter was his first contact with Nobbs, but not his last before Stalag Luft as he went on to produce Rich Tea and Sympathy in 1991. Other production successes included Home to Roost and The New Statesman with Rik Mayall.

Playing to type

The phrase 'beware of cultural stereotypes' appears throughout the drama, but the irony is that none of them realize that that is just what they are, Big F most of all. It is proved most inventively by Nobbs when the remaining British prisoners decide they have to escape from their colleagues playing the Germans, for by playing Germans they have become the idealized, stereotypical German army officers of countless B war movies and the very thing they were fighting against as Allies. Big F suffers most of all from this of course, because he already has a certain amount of dictator in him in the first place, setting himself up above the others on the escape committee. Coupled with his air of superiority that he uses over the likes of Chump (public school instead of private) and Owly (because he's not even British and therefore lower than low), he has the makings of an excellent SS officer, let along regular army, before he even adopts the uniform.

Sublime and the ridiculous

Having said that Fry's Big F makes a good German, it is only fair to point up the rest of his performance at the opposite ends of the scale as a British officer. His 'style' speech is a case in point of the sublime from Nobbs' pen which he plays beautifully, while the writer's sense of the ridiculous is exemplified by the meeting to hear Einstein's explanation of the well. It takes place in one of the huts which has a stage built into it and the committee are all dressed, Big F included, in drag. One can only assume that the weak-willed Germans allow their prisoners to put on concert party-type shows to relieve the boredom, but you are left wondering how many of the aborted escape attempts by Chump and Big F have involved the luckless prisoners leaving in their stockinged feet - literally! This sort of out-of-place humour reminds strongly of the likening to a hippo of Reggie's mother-in-law in …Perrin, a scene totally at variance with the rest of their difficult situation. Credit has to go to all the members of the escape committee, who play the scene completely straight with Fry in particular still maintaining Big F's air of ill-informed authority even when dressed up to the nines.

Never escaped again

Although available overseas on video, Stalag Luft never escaped its own captor, Yorkshire Television, except on its original broadcast in the UK, which is rather a shame. While probably classified as a black comedy, it's a grey one in many respects and for anyone who's ever seen The Great Escape would certainly provide a laugh or two. For all those valiant airmen who were imprisoned in camps like these, I can only imagine how much of it would ring true, but I'm sure thinking it through they would be able to point to many of the characters, certainly Big F, and say 'we had an airman just like that in our camp.' Of course, that may just prove Nobbs' premise about stereotypes was correct.

Whatever the case, this 90-odd minute drama was a piece of original viewing that would not look out of place today. Wartime dramas never seem to date, unlike those filmed depicting later eras. And when you have quality writing, good actors and a solid production team, you can't go far wrong. The airmen may have been grounded, but Stalag Luft still produced the goods when it took flight and made a drama out of a crisis. Just a shame it never escaped again…

article copyright PPS / M.Hearn 2005