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ACTION
TV ONLINE EPISODE GUIDE
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Director : James MacTaggart Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Moonstrike - A new series of programmes about wartime secret agents and the men who flew them to their assignments: In September 1940, during the Second World War, with Britain still reeling from the collapse of France, her principal ally, and under imminent threat of invasion, Winston Churchill spoke over the radio to the French people. In this speech he said: "Those Frenchmen who are in so-called unoccupied France may see their way from time to time for useful action. I will not go into details". No details. But in these words Churchill gave the first hint that he did not expect the peoples of Europe to accept subjugation, and that Britain - however embattled she herself might be - was prepared to give active support to those who elected to resist the Germans. Moonstrike, the series which begins tonight, tells the story of how this support was organised, and of the men and women whose dangerous task it was to deliver it. These all belonged to one of three groups: the secret agents themselves, the Resistance groups, and the squadrons which flew in agents and supplies under the noses of the enemy. For this last group, headquarters was a bleak airfield called Tempsford, whose derelict buildings can still be seen near Bedford. There were two of these special duties squadrons: Number 138, which was charged with parachuting agents and supplies into all parts of occupied Europe, and which used multi-engined aircraft; and Number 161, flying Hudsons and the agile little Lysanders, whose function was actually to land and pick up agents. Tempsford and Tangmere, which was also used for this work, were two of the most closely guarded airfields in the country, and the secret of what went on there was successfully kept until the end of the war. The crews which flew their moonlight missions from these airfields kept themselves a race apart, even from their fellow airmen engaged in more orthodox forms of warfare. They would answer all questions on their activities with some muttered vagueness about "radar" or "beam-bending". Behind the men who flew the "Joe-jobs" was the special operations executive - referred to as S.O.E - which controlled the agents, or "Joes". Robert Barr, the author of Moonstrike, has worked closely from the outset with former members of the special duties squadrons and of S.O.E. Throughout the series, the incidents described will be ones that actually happened, though the characters involved have naturally been fictionalised. Furthermore, Barr and producer Gerard Glaister were determined that this authenticity should extend to the treatment and atmosphere of every programme. "We intend to get right away from the conventional war-film formula," sais Glaister. "There are plenty of heroes and heroines in this story, but there will be no mock-heroics of the `wizard-prang' variety". Later on in the series emphasis will fall mainly on parachuting operations and on the work of the S.O.E agents themselves. But the first programme will deal more particularly with the least-known aspect of the whole operation - the exploits of the Lynsander pilots. Tonight's story is a reconstruction of a typical Lysander operation, and demonstrates the particular kind of skill and courage required from the young men whose task was to fly their tiny machines into enemy-held Europe by moonlight, usually to pick up agents in danger of arrest. (Radio Times, February 14, 1963 - Article by Michael Williams). Notes : Episodes were transmitted 8:25pm to 9:15pm on BBC 1.
Director : Terence Dudley Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Moonstrike: "Andre is well again … Andre is well again …". A BBC announcer reads the cryptic message at the end of a news bulletin beamed to wartime Europe, and somewhere in France three men slip out of a village occupied by German troops. Their destination: a field some miles away, just big enough for a plane to land by moonlight. In tonight's second story in the new Moonstrike series, the three Frenchmen have a rendezvous with a black Lynsander flown by Flight-Lieutenant Brannagan. He is a pilot who has been well trained to look out for obstacles when landing in enemy territory; but not the kind of obstacle he meets this time, which alerts every German in the district. Written by Robert Barr, author of many drama-documentaries, the stories in Moonstrike are all based on actual wartime incidents. Many of the men who carried out these special operations have helped Barr in his research. The character of Flight-Lieutenant Glynne, for example, who figures largely in the early episodes, is based on an ex-Air Force pilot who is now an executive with a London insurance company. Among the other men whose exploits will be re-told in the series is one who is now an engineer and another who still flies over France - but as a BEA airliner captain. Authenticity is the essence of Moonstrike. This is how it happened in the secret war. These were the often lonely, always dangerous adventures of the pilots and agents who by their courage helped to build the Resistance movement which was to "set Europe ablaze". (Radio Times, February 21, 1963). Synopsis : Flight-Lieutenant Brannagan has been trained to look for obstacles when landing in enemy territory - but not obstacles like this.
Director : James MacTaggart Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Planning A Moonstrike: This series, which tells the amazing story of the Resistance fighters of the Second World War and of the airmen who kept them in action, tonight reconstructs an incident which was enacted more than once. A lone Halifax flies into France, its passenger, a secret agent, is going out to reinforce a Maquis group. From a field below, a toch-light signal pricks the darkness. But the coded flashes look suspicious, and the pilot must decide on the instant what he should do. If he decides to turn back, a vital operation may be ruined. If he goes on with the parachute drop, he may be sending a man to his death. (Radio Times, February 28, 1963). Synopsis : A wrong code signal flashes for Squadron Leader Mackie. Is it a mistake or a trap?
Director : Richard Stevens Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Five Hours To Kill: Moonstrike tonight continues the story of the "Lysander boys" of Number 161 Squadron who hedge-hopped occupied France to pick up Allied agents on the run. In particular it deals with the hazards which faced such fugitives in their efforts to reach the rendezvous - always a make-shift landing strip on some remote field - within the very narrow time-limits demanded by this kind of operation. It also brings out the agonising climate in which the agents had to exist. Theirs was a world of constant deceit and protracted cat-and-mouse manoeuvring which was liable to any moment to change into violence and sudden death. (Radio Times, March 7, 1963). Synopsis
: An agent is arrested and held for questioning - but
the plane is already on its way to pick him up.
Director : James MacTaggart Script : Robert Barr Synopsis
: It is only after a successful pick-up that Flight Lieutenant
Glynne's troubles begin.
Director : Terence Dudley Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Moonstrike: With tonight's episode, emphasis in the Moonstrike series shifts from the men whose task was to deliver agents and supplies from occupied France to the agents themselves. And the change of emphasis brings with it an acute change of atmosphere for, while the world of the Special Duties aircrews was tense enough, it was by wartime standards almost a normal mone. They returned from operations to familiar Service talk, familiar food, familiar beds. But for the agents this was merely a world through which they were hustled with maximum speed on their way to places where home was always some temporary hiding-place known optimistically as a "safe house". Tonight's story is called simply "A Safe House". It tells how a girl agent of Special Operations Executive takes on the personality of a timid little French widow in order to carry out a vital mission - to set up a resistance organisation in a small northern French town where no such organisation had existed before. After being landed by parachute "Irene" finds herself abruptly plunged into the atmosphere which all agents had to accept: one in which the people's instinct for patriotic action had to be balanced against the risks which resisting involved. She has to recruit among these people a force which will stand up to the Germans - and she has to do it alone. (Radio Times, March 21, 1963). Synopsis : There is danger in recruiting a new resistance group - and for a woman it may be doubly dangerous.
Director : Eric Tayler Script : Allan Prior Publicity : Moonstrike: The sharpest weapon in the armoury of the war-time French Resistance was sabotage. Just one well-placed charge of explosives - and a vital factory could be put more surely out of action than if it had been the target of a large-scale and costly bombing raid. Danger By Appointment, tonight's story in the Moonstrike series, shows how one such coup was planned, and the consequences for those concerned. (Radio Times, March 28, 1963).
Director : Roger Jenkins Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Moonstrike: The secret war which was waged in enemy-occupied Europe during the Second World War was never conducted according to Queensberry Rules. Agents in the field could expect no quarter when captured, and in their turn they had to be prepared to be similarly ruthless when the circumstances demanded. And they had to be suspicious all the time. Tonight's Moonstrike story, called "Unwelcome Guest", is a study in suspicion. The injured agent suspects a peasant family which is harbouring him; and they distrust the agent. So the presence of a fellow-countryman in the neighbourhood might well be a welcome opportunity for the agent to relax and drop his guard for an instant - but that is just what he must never, never do … (Radio Times, April 4, 1963). Synopsis : An injured agent is taken to a lonely farm and a new set of troubles begin.
Director : Richard Stevens Script : Allan Prior Synopsis : A "lucky" escape lands an agent in prison. When he is released can he be trusted?
Director : Terence Dudley Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Moonstrike: The despatch of an underground agent into occupied Europe was usually followed by a coded message from a secret transmitter announcing his safe arrival. But sometimes, as in tonight's Moonstrike story, "No Joy", the parachute drop was followed only by silence, and this meant real trouble. For while he might merely have damaged his radio on landing he might equally have been killed on arrival, or have killed himself to avoid capture. Worst of all, he might have fallen alive into the hands of the Gestapo - and talked. If this happened it could mean disaster for a whole organisation. (Radio Times, April 18, 1963). Synopsis : When an agent disappears without trace, the safety of others is in jeopardy.
Director : David Goddard Script : Robert Barr Publicity : Moonstrike: The classic tactic of guerilla forces is the hit-and-rund raid, not the set-piece battle. So the French Resistance fighters of the second world war dealt mostly in pin-pricks; a bridge blown here, a truck ambushed there. But sometimes the lightly armed maquisards would be forced to stand and fight against overwhelming odds. One such occasion was the real-life tragedy of the Vercors plateau, when the Germans brought an entire air-supported division against a maquis of the South, and a similar battle provides the starting point for "A Sunday Morning". (Radio Times, April 25, 1963). Synopsis : In the quiet of a Sunday morning the plan went well - and then terror struck.
Director : Roger Jenkins Script : Allan Prior Synopsis : When a member of the resistance turns traitor desperate action is taken.
Director : David Benedictus Script : Allan Prior Synopsis : The Resistance in Lille require an expert, but when he arrives they regard him with suspicion.
Director : Michael Hayes Script : Robert Barr Synopsis : When the Gestapo make arrests in Paris the survivors set out to reach the "safe house" set up by Irene in Potiers some months before.
Director : Christopher Barry Script : Allan Prior Synopsis : When a Resistance vehicle carrying explosives is stopped at a control post one of the German guards insists on making a thorough search.
Director : Prudence Fitzgerald Script : Terence Dudley Synopsis : A lone agent abandoned in France could do no worse than find himself a girl friend - but how much worse?
Director : David Goddard Script : Robert Barr Synopsis : Anatole is known to the Germans as "the biggest bandit of the lot". When his radio operator is arrested he plans an audacious rescue.
Director : David Benedictus Script : Allan Prior Publicity : Moonstrike: A pile of coke is not the softest of landings for a British agent (played by Francis Matthews in tonight's story) when he tries to escape from the hospital where he is being held prisoner by the police. The young man is in prison through his own foolishness, but now that the Germans are likely to invade this part of "unoccupied" France it is important that he escapes. Are the two French agents (Patrick Magee and Diane Aubrey) justified in risking their lives for the sake of a usless agent? (Radio Times, June 13, 1963). Synopsis : An agent lands up in prison through a deliberate act of his own. Is it wise to attempt a rescue?
Director : Sheelagh Rees Script : Michael Williams Synopsis : A daring sabotage plan depends on the loyalty of Efienne, the local schoolmastedr. But is he to be trusted?
Director : Prudence Fitzgerald Script : Allan Prior
Director : Waris Hussein Script : John O'Toole Synopsis : The loyalty of a gypsie girl is put severely to the test.
Director : Robin Midgley Script : Robert Barr Synopsis : When unexpected information from the Resistance suggests that an important factory is being built in the tiny village, two agents are sent to deal with it. Tony Britton plays the part of a British agent, and Liane Aukin a courier in the French Resistance, in tonight's drama.
Director : David Benedictus Script : Allan Prior Synopsis : The Gestapo arrives to "clean up" a Resistance group.
Director : Leonard Chase Script : Shaun Sutton Synopsis : When a Marquis leader is asked for help he makes a hard and dangerous bargain with the agent.
Director : Bill Hays Script : John O'Toole Synopsis : An agent returns to his home village but wonders if old friends can still be trusted. With Tony Tanner (Louis) and Kathleen Michael (Sister Theresa).
Director : David Goddard Script : Maurice Buckmaster Synopsis : Marie has failed in her tests at the special forces training school, but other qualities make her a successful agent.
Director : David Goddard Script : Robert Barr Synopsis : Janette is sent on her last mission and learns that it is the prelude to invasion. Janette, who has just parachuted into France, faces a tricky moment of suspicion with her reception committee, Andre and Lucien. With Penelope Horner (Janette), Paul Harris (Andre) and Derek Smee (Lucien). |
The
series was devised and created by Robert Barr. Gerard Glaister (Parts
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19)
and David Goddard (Parts 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27).
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