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Great Escape: The Justice

True story of the post-war manhunt to avenge the Great Escape, by Robert Radcliffe and Robin Brooks. Stars Stephen Tompkinson. From April 2013.

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.

Producer/Director ..... Jonquil Panting.

1 hour

Last on

Mon 8 Jan 2018 04:00

Credits

Role Contributor
Sqn Ldr McKenna Stephen Tompkinson
Nixon Gunnar Cauthery
Schulmann Ewan Bailey
Max Wielen Nicholas Murchie
Emil Schulz Rick Warden
Oberst von Lindeiner Robert Blythe
Roger Bushell Ben Crowe
Paul Brickhill Michael Shelford
Nils Fuglesang Will Howard
Marie Amaka Okafor
Gluck Paul Stonehouse
Angela Schulz Hannah Wood
Director Jonquil Panting
Producer Jonquil Panting
Writer Robin Brooks
Writer Robert Radcliffe

Broadcasts

  • Sat 13 Apr 2013 14:30
  • Sun 16 Mar 2014 15:00
  • Sun 7 Jan 2018 16:00
  • Mon 8 Jan 2018 04:00

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