The Same Sky - political drama from Germany starts Fri 23 October @ 9pm on More4

[stumbledin]

Cant see much info on this but think it is a Cold War East West spy plot.

But includes Sofia Helin who left the Bridge to go digging in Australia and is now behind the Iron Curtain!

www.channel4.com/programmes/the-same-sky

(I have a memory of at least two other German political dramas based on the Cold War era. First was great, the second not so good)

I thought it was very good, although everyone seems to wear the same outfits all the time.

I would not recommend watching though- no resolution of any plot lines and no series 2!

Im not sure what you mean by the clothes being the same, there was a difference between East and West. I don't suppose there would have been much variety in the East and they wouldn't have had as many clothes.

I do agree that the end was unsatisfactory. There seemed so much still to resolve.

I don’t mean the difference between east and west- I mean the fact that in West Berlin scenes, extras wore the same outfit in numerous different episodes/on different days and the mother of the twins wore the same shirt in at least three episodes. I mean, they were amazing clothes, but they could have mixed it up a bit.

I have been watching week by week on C4 and found it quite good.

Now half way through they have stopped showing it.

Maybe not enough people are tuning in.

Is it online?

It’s on all4- but there are only six episodes and the last one feels like it’s not the last IYSWIM; which was the last one you watched?

I like this though it feels they have pinched a lot from Deutschland 83. Haven't noticed the clothes thing!

Just checked and there are only 6. Makes me feel that somehow it was cancelled.

I thought the twin story was going to turn out to be a bit of a shocker - but maybe I haven't quite got right the relationship between the father whose son is sent to the west, and the american family whose wife is german. They had the same photos of a woman with twins.

Its written by Paula Milne.

Very strange. I feel a bit conned.

I assumed he was with his lost twin in the last episode (trying to avoid massive spoiler). I thought it was very good but not finished.

People didn't have so many clothes in the 70s even in West Germany or Britain.

Just checked and there are only 6. Makes me feel that somehow it was cancelled.

You were warned in the first reply on the thread! I watched it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it but was disappointed that there was never a second series. That said I hated the twin plot. It's sooooo cheesey. Reminds me of Sons and Daughters. That's fine for a cheesey ozzie soap, but Cold War espionage thrillers have too much scope for plot to go that stupid route.

By chance I watched this film, still available on BBC iPlayer set in east Germany.

Not really the same in any way. But a bit more authentic than this empty attempt.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000pyt7/balloon

It was a great film!

Have run out of films/TV set in Cold War Germany now though- any others you’d recommend?

The Lives of Others & Goodbye Lenin would be my film recommendations.

Well I'm old enough to remember the Quiller Memorandum and the Ipcress File though not sure how they would bear up so many decades later. And of course all the tv Smilies. Though not the recent remake which was naff.

But I suppose they are all more from the view point of British intelligence rather than about East Germany.

And there was more recently a Tom Hanks film Bridge of Spies.

The Lives of Others & Goodbye Lenin would be my film recommendations.
I loved both of those especially Goodbye Lenin. I will definitely watch The Balloon. I got quite invested in the various story lines in Same Sky and was very disappointed in the ending.

The Lives of Others is a brilliant film. Loved it! Is Goodbye Lenin the one where the children were pretending to the mum that the wall hadn't come down? I enjoyed that too.

Not East German but the Czech film Kolya is excellent on similar themes.

That's the one @ValancyRedfern