SSGB

Often it is more accurate to review a new series after the second or third episode so I held back till I watched last Sunday’s second part of SSGB. The story is that the Nazis won the Battle of Britain, Churchill was executed and there was Nazi Occupation. This is well tramelled territory. In the sixties a fine drama It Happened Here, centering on the degree of cooperation by the native populace with Nazi occupiers, was made and the novelist CJ Sansom wrote a novel hypothesising that Halifax, not Churchill, followed Chamberlain and the UK became a satellite Nazi state like Denmark.

This programme is based on the Len Deighton 1962 novel. The central character is Douglas Archer (Sam Riley), a superintendent in the Yard, who after the occupation is forced to work alongside the SS Officer Huth in regard to investigating a murder in Shepherds Market. He has a Jewish secretary Sylvia (Mave Demody), with whom he has an affaire, who works for the Resistance and is on the run. The scriptwriters Neale Purvis and Robert Wade worked on the last two Bond films and the production is lavish in terms of location and period detail. It must have been quite a thing to film the Mall covered in swastika banners. It has many sub plots: the rivalry between SS and the Wehrmacht, the conflicts of conscience that Archer experiences, the affaire between Archer and glamorous American reporter Brigut Banga (Kate Bosworth). If I had one criticism it would be you do not see many round-ups of Jews and that inevitable happening is covered in the context of Sylvia and Archer. Another would be that Sam Riley, whilst a pretty boy, looks too young and fresh faced to be a Superintendent and is cast for the romantic angle.

With catch up tv and sophisticated recording, the Sunday night drama hot spot is not quite so vital in the ratings war as many will choose to watch it Monday when the fare is less appetising. I confess that I am now hooked.