World on fire?

[Namechange3007]

Anyone watching? Helen Hunt appears to have an entirely new face.

Yes, think that he was in The Inbetweeners. I thought he brought a bit of humour to it all. I'm hooked, enjoyed the different story lines.

He played Pike in the Dad’s Army film.

I can't put my finger on what's wrong with this series I'm watching and will keep watching BUT

With at least 7 different narrative POV strands across 3 countries and languages, this should feel like a challenging intense prestige drama

And it doesn't

There's an odd simplicity to it a bit paint by numbers, with some very cheesy scenes and lazy writing. It's a puzzling one.

It is rarely highlighted what the Nazis did to disabled people so I'm glad they've highlighted that and I also like the note that ordinary decent Germans who were not Nazis were just as fucked as Brits; as for a long time historically "The Germans" were viewed as a homogenous evil bunch.

Even so it's all a bit of a melodrama which doesn't live up to its remit

I'm enjoying it. I like how Harry's mother is developing as a character.

Helen Hunt's character is based on Sheilah Graham, I think?

@BitOfFun She's based on Claire Hollingsworth. :-)

Wiki says - Hollingworth had been working as a Telegraph journalist for less than a week when she was sent to Poland to report on worsening tensions in Europe. She persuaded the British Consul-General in Katowice, John Anthony Thwaites, to lend her his chauffeured car for a fact-finding mission into Germany.[9][10] While driving along the German–Polish border on 28 August, Hollingworth observed a massive build-up of German troops, tanks and armoured cars facing Poland, after the camouflage screens concealing them were disturbed by wind. Her report was the main story on the Daily Telegraph's front page on the following day.[6][11]

On 1 September, Hollingworth called the British embassy in Warsaw to report the German invasion of Poland. To convince doubtful embassy officials, she held a telephone out of the window of her room to capture the sounds of German forces.[6][9] Hollingworth's eyewitness account was the first report the British Foreign Office received about the invasion of Poland.[4][6]

Wow, that's really interesting, thank you!

@BitOfFun What can I say, I'm a history geek...

Me too- I love hearing stories like this.

I am watching this.

Quite enjoying it - it is a bit cliched but still worth a watch.

I hope Kasia survives though. It looks very dangerous hanging around in bombed Warsaw and being used as bait to kill soldiers.

@We1shBird good shout - but I can't unsee it now!

Anyone watching tonight?

Me

Me!!!
I have a theory that the Jewish nurse and the American doctor will get married to protect her. And the black guy will be out on his nelly. I'm not really seeing the point of that part of the drama tbh
Ooooo next weeks looks good.

It's very gripping, bit violent tonight though! I'm beginning to really like the characters too.Wish they wouldn't show those trailers at the end, I don't want spoilers!

I think it’s very good - don’t understand some of the sneery comments up thread but each to their own. Explores a lot of the complex issues around both sides - like the dad having to join the nazi party to protect his daughter ,

How on earth did the two Polish soldiers meet up with bunch of British soldiers?! Even someone with the most basic understanding of WWII would know that’s impossible (unless they’ve miraculously traversed the whole of German territory, east to west, which would be ridiculous.

@Oakenbeach it did seem a bit of a stretch to believe that! My friend's father, a wonderful man who died a few years ago in his nineties, was a corporal in a Polish regiment in 1939. He was only 19 and had joined up in 1938 so that he was part of a decent regiment rather than be conscripted - he thought war was coming. He was captured by the Germans early in the war and escaped and then made his way across Europe to England. He then joined the free Polish forces and went back to Europe with them in the 1944 invasion to fight his way back across Europe to Germany. He was an amazing man.

He was captured by the Germans early in the war and escaped and then made his way across Europe to England.

It’s just about conceivable that they somehow would traverse Germany, but that would be an epic journey across a 1,000 miles of country outside of the war zone, made even more as they appeared to have headed off east into the Soviet occupied zone last week! They would have had to double back on themselves and travel across Nazi occupied Poland, the full breadth of Germany, and then across Belgium and a stretch of northern France.

The implausible journey would have taken at least a couple of months on foot and their adversaries would have been gestapo and the average German citizen, not Panzer divisions,
yet it’s made to seem as though they do it after some stumbling through a forest, not a country.

Wizzbangpop, I think the same, he will marry her , but I don’t think it will save her or him. His boyfriend must leave, he has no chance.

@Oakenbeach I agree that the journey made by Kasia's brother and his comrade, though possible, has been quite confusing, and, yes, they were definitely being pursued by Russian soldiers in the last episode, so were in the east of Poland and there was snow on the ground - so it must have been at least before April 1940? It does appear that they've made the journey west on foot across Germany, but it's really not clear where they went or over what time frame except that we now know it's May/June 1940.

Overall, I'm enjoying this and I think it's been well made. The timeframes are a bit loose, probably because it's a multi-stranded story, but I feel it's all starting to pull together.

I've been enjoying this although some of the cliches are irritating. Of course Lois would inevitably become pregnant from her first time having sex I was surprised that there was no hint of disapprobation from anyone who knows about her pregnancy; in 1940 it would be a moral outrage for a young single woman to be pregnant, bringing shame on the family etc but it was very easily accepted by both Sean Bean and Lesley Manville's characters. Perhaps that will come as more people outside the family get to know about it. (I'm not saying it's the right way to react but it's how many/most people would have responded at the time so I'd like some period authenticity.)

I'm definitely most gripped by the Polish POV, Helen Hunt and her German neighbours - the scene with the father having joined the Nazi Party to protect Hilda was the most powerful of the whole series so far for me - and to a lesser extent Sean Bean and his relationship with his son and Lesley Manville warming to Jan. The little glance she gave over her shoulder to see if he'd heard/understood Sean Bean telling her that Lois was pregnant by Jan's brother-in-law was beautifully understated but spoke volumes about how she is coming to care about him.

I'm yet to gel with the Paris couple although the Jewish nurse made things more interesting last night, and Lois and Harry just irritate me - or at least, the contrived way their relationship operates. I presume the writers were trying to avoid the cliche of star-crossed lovers separated by class barriers but the reason they're apart / she's antagonistic towards him feels so manufactured and flimsy. She guessed he was involved with Kasia because he didn't mention her name?? She should be working at Bletchley with the ability to make leaps of reasoning like that.

I can usually handwave away the 'improbable distance' covered by the Polish fugitives because that sort of thing often doesn't register with me, but even I did a double take when I saw the trailer for next week and thought "how on earth has Kasia's brother ended up in the Normandy landings from his starting point???"

Sorry, that ended up a proper essay!

@oakenbeach yes, the stumbling through the forest was unbelievable. Friend's father went south, then by boat across the Mediterranean etc. I think he was very determined, very strong and very bright. He was an amazing person.

Has anyone watched this evenings episode?

Tonight's was gripping, so many heart-stopping moments. The war scenes are so well done. It's one of the few current dramas where I really like most of the characters.