"When you de-militarize, you're supposed to let the enemy know. They pulled out their troops and left us here like sitting bloody ducks." - James Wilby as James Dorr
Island at War DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
With hundreds of World War II films and miniseries presented over the last sixty years, it would seem impossible to find a fresh take on the conflict. Band of Brothers, Combat!, The Winds of War, Hogan's Heroes, From Here to Eternity - surely every aspect of the war has been dramatized by now. In the British miniseries Island at War, however, screenwriter Stephen Mallatratt, who also penned the engrossing 2002 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga, explores rarely-trod ground: the Channel Islands, the only British territory to fall to and be occupied by the Nazis. The result is engaging and revelatory.
The Channel Islands are located twenty miles off the coast of France in the English Channel. After Paris surrendered to Germany in mid-June 1940, Britain decided that it would be strategically sensible to pull its troops from the islands. The only problem: the British forgot to inform the Nazis. Islanders - including those on Island at War's fictional St. Gregory - begin to evacuate, but the Luftwaffe, mistaking tomato trucks for military equipment, launched an air attack. Soon, the defenseless islands have been invaded by the enemy.
Island at War follows three families of different social strata: the upper-class Dorrs, the middle-class Mahys, and the working class Jonases. James Dorr (James Wilby, Maurice) is a senator who, thanks to the incompetence of his superior, practically runs the island. His not-so-happily-married wife, Felicity (Clare Holman, Prime Suspect 6), spends her days acting with the local theater company. They constantly worry about their son, Philip (Sam Heughan), who has enlisted in the army. They believe that he is in England preparing to fight, but he is actually closer than they think. Cassie Mahy (Saskia Reeves, Dune) is the hard-nosed proprietor of a grocery store she inherited from her father. She is often frustrated by her gadabout husband, Urban (Julian Wadham), but has great hopes for their two daughters, Angelique (Joanne Froggatt, Coronation Street) and June (Samantha Robinson). Wilf Jonas (Owen Teale) is a policeman who fishes in his spare time to supplement his income. With the help of his wife, Kathleen (Julia Ford), the family also runs a farm. The families have little in common until the island is invaded by the Germans, led by Baron von Rheingarten (Philip Glenister). Now each must struggle to maintain their dignity and principles while negotiating an uncertain, ever-shifting life under their oppressors.
Each episode of Island at War is filled with heart-pounding events both big and small. As expected in a WWII drama, these include air raids, shots of wave after wave of German planes heading for London, and other military-based thrills. It also includes many smaller, personal moments that are equally effective: a local girl being berated for becoming a German-fraternizing "Jerry bag;" another being extorted into having sex with a German officer to avoid being sent to a concentration camp; a mother pretending not to recognize her son in order to hide his identity; an elderly woman inadvertently fingering a spy, thus sentencing him to death. Thanks to the miniseries' talented cast, viewers may find many of these scenes hard to shake.
The miniseries' final episode is its weakest. The ending is a bit too pat. The Channel Islands were occupied for almost five years, but the action of this miniseries encompasses only a few months at the start of the occupation. Imagine if Titanic, for example, had ended immediately after the ship hit the iceberg. Since the miniseries' focus is so narrow, perhaps an artificial, vaguely unsatisfying ending was inevitable. After all, the overall conflict hasn't been completely played out. Despite its imperfect conclusion, Island at War is extremely entertaining.
Island at War is currently being shown on PBS as part of Masterpiece Theatre. The Masterpiece Theatre broadcasts have been edited for time and content. The DVDs, however, contain the original, uncut U.K. broadcast editions.
The six episodes that make up Island at War are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in standard-sized keepcases which slide into a cardboard outer sleeve. The back of each keepcase includes brief synopses of the episodes found on the DVD.
The menus are simple and functional. Viewers can choose to watch an entire episode or can jump directly to a scene using the "Scene Selection" menu.
