First watched : 12 November 1981
I wondered if anything was going to fall on this particular date and yes, a trawl through the synopses and a peek on YouTube confirm that my first exposure to this series did indeed occur that evening.
It was a red letter day because an hour or so earlier, at our regular monthly meeting at my gran's house, my friend Michael announced that he was quitting Littleborough Rambling Club . In one sense it wasn't so surprising ; it had been effectively agreed that he would step down as chairman in the new year, making way for Sean, our young treasurer. but it was still a shock that he was calling time early. He was very polite about it, waiting until Any Other Business and saying that he would still be coming to the Christmas party ( which will feature in another post ).
Very unwisely, I asked him "Are you just fed up ?" and received the devastating reply "Not of walking ! " *
The meaning of that was clear enough. I dared not delve any further nor was there any need.
My attention switched to Sean. He lived virtually next door to Michael, seemed to admire him and looked like he had known what was coming.
" I suppose you're going too then ? " I asked him.
Sean looked surprised and said no so we ( the four of us including our Secretary, another Michael ) went through the silly business of electing him as chair. That actually made the situation worse; if Sean had said yes, that would have allowed me to offer throwing over all the formal nonsense and the hopeless trying to attract adults with easy local walks which Michael had never been enthusiastic about and going back to the sort of walks he enjoyed, perhaps on a monthly basis. With Sean wanting his spell in the chair, that option wasn't available. Even worse, it put me entirely at Sean's mercy ; when he got fed up, and I'd no doubt at all that he would , the house of cards would collapse. Everyone knew that and the next six months were almost entirely miserable, waiting for the Sword of Damocles to descend. Looking back, I can appreciate the irony of someone as virulently anti-communist as me taking the classic Bolshevik route to getting one's own way by formalising relationships and then manipulating the structures. Except in the end. it worked against me.
It would be very unfair on a few individuals ( one of whom was best man at my wedding ) to say that the "members" of the Club were my only friends at the time but Michael was the last friend who I could trust to say yes to my ideas more or less unconditionally. I could no longer feed my ego that way; I would have to learn about compromise, "fitting in " and letting others take the lead, a painful process.
So I came home that evening, shocked and full of apprehension for the future , to find my mum engrossed in the fourth episode of Tenko, of which she was already a big fan. Tenko actually sprang from This Is Your Life when a researcher on the programme Lavinia Warner was investigated the experiences of an incarcerated nurse and thought it had dramatic potential. She was proved correct.
The first two episodes were filmed in Singapore before its fall giving an introduction to the privileged lifestyle the British were enjoying there. It's interesting that those first two episodes were written by a man and give equal weight to the male characters. Thereafter , the episodes were filmed on VT on a purpose-built set in Dorset, written by a female duo and were very female -centric. \The series was part-funded by Australia's ABC so there were a couple of Aussies in the cast although I don't think there was any cross over with a certain Australian soap about female captives
The series follows the lives of a group of British and Dutch female prisoners taken by the Japanese around the fall of Singapore. They have to make the best of life amid dreadful conditions and appalling cruelty although this was slightly toned down to keep the series watchable. The camp commander Yamauchi ( Bert Kwouk ) was a relatively humane figure. The central relationship in the series is the platonic friendship between Marion Jefferson ( Anne Bell ) , an army wife who becomes the leader of the British women and is capable although her constant self-analysis becomes a bit grating over time and grumpy, repressed lesbian doctor Bea Mason. ( Stephanie Cole ). The chief Dutch characters were Sister Ulrica , a formidable, single-minded nun and Mrs Van Meyer , vain and selfish but a born survivor. Both characters were played by British actresses ( Patricia Lawrence and Elizabeth Chambers ) who had to keep up the accent for three series.
Although my mum always regarded it as "a woman's series " I'm sure the simulation of a tropical climate meant it had a certain male audience with a thing for women in 1940s underwear even if they weren't wearing make-up. There was occasionally a topless scene. First off the mark in that respect was Cockney trollop Blanche played by Louise Jameson; for anyone who remembered her from Dr Who it was a shocking disappointment. Best to stick with your memories of Leela in the animal skins. Later, in the third season there was a tabloid fuss about one of the Aussies , Kate ( Claire Oberman ) getting them out for a bathtub scene.
That first episode I saw largely focused on the efforts of scarred young widow Dorothy ( Veronica Roberts ) to find enough food for her baby which has dreadful consequences for an Asian villager who trades with the camp. It may have been just the mood I was in after the meeting but I had a dreadful feeling of foreboding for the baby and I'm glad I didn't see the subsequent episode in which it perished. Dorothy goes on to become a compelling character who sleeps with the guards to the disgust of the other women but they do make use of it.
With the popularity of the series soaring , new characters were introduced in the second season as the women were moved to a camp with slightly better conditions. Both Bea and Ann have to contend with already-installed rivals for their positions. Ann's nemesis Verna Johnson ( Rosemary Martin ) thinks nothing of ripping off the other women for her own gain. Sour faced battle-axe Jean Anderson from The Brothers joined the cast as crusty old Joss. The season ends dramatically with the death of high maintenance Rose ( Stephanie Beacham ) who was shot while having an unlikely rendez-vous with her fella outside the camp and perishes slowly and then an Allied air-raid on the camp .
By the third season the series was really popular and commanded a much higher budget. It was a mirror image of the first season with the first two episodes set in the camp as the war ended and the rest filmed in Singapore as the survivors ( missing Verna and Blanche who were tersely mentioned as having died in the intervening years ) struggled to rebuild their lives and deal with a population no longer content to accept British rule after the tame surrender of 1942. I was never a fervent viewer of the series but this season did seem to go on too long.
The series was rounded off with a feature length reunion episode on Boxing Day 1985 set five years later. This had a melodramatic storyline with Ulrica getting shot ( not fatally ) and Christina ( Emily Bolton ) , the mild-mannered mixed race girl exposed as a Communist terrorist and imprisoned.
It was repeated on Yesterday a few years back to the delight of my wife who'd also been a big fan of the series.
* I've no doubt he meant it sincerely but, from subsequent conversations, I don't now think he did much walking after that night.
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