527 Kessler

First  viewed : 13  November  1981

This  sequel  to  Secret  Army  was  OK  but  not  as  good  as  it  could  have  been.

The  end  of  Secret  Army  in  1979  had  left  a  bad  taste  in  the  mouth  because  of  a  seeming  burning  injustice. Having  contrived  the  execution  of  decent  Luftwaffe  counterpart  Reinhardt  the  series ' chilling  chief  villain  SS  man    Kessler  ( Clifford  Rose )  then  got  away  with  his  Belgian  girlfriend  and  a  false  identity. But  all  was  not  as  it  seems. A  further  episode  set  in  the  late  60s  in  which  Kessler's  past  would  come  to  light was  filmed  but  the  Beeb  didn't  like  it  and  canned  it.

Kessler  is  basically  a  six  part   expanded  version  of  that  rejected  episode.  The  theme  tune  is  a  re-arrangement  of  the  Secret  Army  theme.  Its  problems  began  when  the  Beeb   threw  out   creator  Gerald  Glaister's  original  late  sixties  setting  on  the  grounds  that  the  period  detail  would  make  it  too  costly. GlaisteSecr  objected  that  a  present  day  setting  would  make  the  likes  of  Albert,  and  Kessler  himself,  geriatrics  but  the  suits  said  no  one  would  care  which  didn't  bode  well  for  the  series.

It  also  got  off  to  a  bad  start  by  including  too  much  material  from   the  aborted  Secret  Army  episode. Kessler's   plot  required  no  more  than  one  of  the  Lifeline  survivors  to  appear  in  one  scene  identifying  a  German  industrialist  Manfred  Dorff  as their  former  foe. Instead  Bernard  Hepton, Angela  Richards  and  Juliet  Hammond-Hill  were  all  brought  back  to  reprise  their  roles  ( none  of  them  looking  nearly  old  enough )  and  their  soap-y  reunion  scenes  do  absolutely  nothing  to  advance  the  story  and  merely  impede  its  flow. None  of  them  appeared  in  subsequent  episodes.

The  story  begins  with  a  Belgian  TV  reporter  Van  Eyck  ( Jerome  Willis )  fingering  Dorff  as  Kessler  which  brings  a  number  of  interested  parties  into  play. German  Intelligence  are   interested  in  the  form  of  Bauer  ( Alan  Dobie  )  as  , for  no  very  clear  reason , British  Intelligence.  Kessler  is  also  holding   the  keys  to   a  Nazi  treasure  chest  on  behalf  of  a  network   of  ageing  Nazis   who  are  concerned  about  his  exposure  while  his  fanatical  blonde  daughter  Ingrid  ( Alison  Glennie )  wants  him  to  divert  the  money  to  her  organisation  of  young   Nazi's  including  her  boyfriend  Franz  ( Nicholas  Young  again )  who  acts  as  Kessler's  minder.

What  saves  the  series  though  is  that  his  exposure   also  attracts  a  young  Jewish  girl   with military  training,  Mical  Rak ,  who  wants  revenge  on  Kessler  for  sending   her   family  to Dachau  and  then  the  murder  of  her  travelling  companion  ( though  Kessler  actually disapproved  of  the  latter, one  of  many  loose  threads  in  the  narrative ). Played  by  the stunningly  attractive  Nitza  Shaul,  Mical  is  a  marvellously  plucky  heroine  who  gets  knocked about  a  bit   but  comes  back  for  more  and  forms  an  effective  partnership  with  the  dry, unexcitable  Bauer  to  chase  Kessler  across  the  globe.

The  series  aired  in  a  pre-watershed  8pm  slot  on  Friday  nights  and  pushed  the  limits  of  what  was  acceptable  in  early  evening  television. The  female  characters are  usually  scantily  clad and  there  are  regular  outbursts  of  violence . In  the  first  episode  Franz  feels  Mical's  boobs  during  a  frisk  then  receives  a  boot  in  the  goolies  for  his  trouble  and  then  the  episode  ends  with  Mical  discovering  her  friend's  naked  body  with  a  swastika  carved  in  her  back.

As  mentioned  above  the  writing  seems  a  bit   slapdash  and  rushed. In  their  final  encounter  Kessler  demands  an  explanation  from  Mical   seemingly  forgetting  that  he  already  had  that  under  torture  in  Episode  2 . She  also  says  that  her  friend   was  not  involved  in  her  mission  whereas  there  was   a  conversation   between  them  in  the  first  episode  where  Mical  referred  to  staking  out the  Dorffs'  house. There  are  also  many  scenes  where  the  characters  are  clearly  being  used  simply   as  mouthpieces  to  re-hash  the  arguments  about  whether  or   when  to  call  a  halt  to  the  pursuit   of  Nazi  war  criminals. This  is  fair  enough  , if  well-worn  territory,  but  when  Kessler   then   presents  the   surviving  Nazis  as   a  vast  criminal  network  in  the  present  day  that  can  efficiently  murder  people  with  impunity,   the  question  becomes redundant.

Kessler  works  better  as  a  drama  about  inter-generational  conflict. The  intelligence  operatives are  all  smug, venal,  middle-aged  men  who  need  the  rocket  up  the  arse  that  Mical  represents. She has  her  Odile  in  Ingrid  who  is  equally  frustrated  that  the  secret  funds  are  being  used  to keep  old  men  like  Mengele  ( Oscar  Quitak )  and  Bormann ( an  arm  in  a  doorway )* in   relative  comfort  rather  than  prepare  for  a  Nazi  re-launch.  The  writers  missed  a  real  trick  in not  having  the  two  girls  meet  ( well  not  in  circumstances  where  they  could  have  a conversation  at  any  rate ).

I  remember  watching  the  final  episode  on  December  18  1981  very  clearly. It  had  been   moved  to  9.25 pm  although, as  it  was  no  more  violent  than  some  of  the  previous  episodes,  I suspect  that  was  more  about  the  Beeb  wanting   to  get  it  out  of  a  prime  time  slot  asap   than worries  over  its  content . The  move  actually  suited  me  to  the  ground ; in  its  new  slot  it provided  the  perfect  cover  for  bringing  an  awkward  situation  to  a  close. If  you've  read  the Tenko  post,  you  might  recall  that  my  departing  friend  Michael  had  said  he  would  attend  the Littleborough  Rambling  Club  Christmas  Party  which  was  at  our  house  on  that  date. We'd  had no  contact  in  the  intervening  six  weeks  but  he  still  turned  up. It  was  a  tense  affair; I  didn't know  if  he  wanted  to be  friends  again  or  not  so  I  was  walking  on  eggshells  and  it  became the  elephant  in  the  room  for  everyone.  He  stayed  fairly  taciturn  throughout  but  he'd  been like that  at  the  past  couple  of  committee  meetings . The  last  episode  of  Kessler   provided  the perfect  excuse  to wrap  the party  up.

So  we  all  watched  it  together. I  remember  our  new  chairman,  Sean  expressing  tactless amazement that  we  still  had  a  black  and  white  TV. I  also  remember  my  sister  Helen remarking  that,  as usual,  Mical  wasn't  wearing  a  bra   ( she  was  wearing  the  top  in  the  picture above ).

Either  Sean  or  his  brother  Frank  asked,  intrigued  "How  can  you  tell ?"

"Well  look !  Where  are  the   straps ?"

"Oh  right "

So  I  guess  she  can  claim  credit  for  a  little  piece  of  their  sex  education.

Kessler  has  never  been  repeated  so  I'm  guessing  the  ratings  were  disappointing. It  marked  the effective  end  of  Young's  efforts  to  move  on  from  The  Tomorrow  People  though  I   think  it was  his  failure  to  sort  his  adenoids  out  that  sunk  him. How  can  you  convey  authority  or menace  if  you  sound  like  George  Osborne  with  a  peg  on  his  nose  ?  The  lovely  Nitza  tarried in  England  for  a  while  , appearing  in  Dr  Who  and  C.A.T.S. Eyes   before  returning  to  Israel where  she  remains  a  fairly  prominent  actress.  


*  Unknown  to  the  writers  at  the  time,  both  men  were  already  dead  by  1981.