Dunkirk (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Dunkirk is a 2004
BBC television
docudrama
about the Battle of Dunkirk
and the Dunkirk evacuation in World War II
.
, RN, at the Admiralty
receives reports of the British Expeditionary Force
's retreat and prepares to oversee Operation Dynamo
. Pvt. Alf Tombs and his decimated company rest at Wormhoudt on the western end of the corridor to Dunkirk. New Prime Minister Winston Churchill
chairs a briefing of the War Cabinet where Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax presses for peace negotiations. Adolf Hitler
has halted the Blitzkrieg
giving Tombs’s company time to reinforce their position and signalmen Clive Tonry and Wilf Saunders return to offer support.
Day 2: Tennant sails from Dover
on to find the Port of Dunkirk decimated by enemy bombardment. Divisions between Churchill and Halifax deepen over the proposed mediation of Italy
threatening a leadership crisis. Embarkation progresses slowly and Tennant signals the Queen of the Channel to come up alongside the eastern breakwater to speed up the process.
Day 3: Tonry and Saunders intercept enemy orders for a pincer movement on Dunkirk. Tombs’s company is forced to pull back as it comes under fire and Tonry and Saunders head into the front line in a last ditch attempt to hold open the corridor. After nine hours of fighting the line breaks as Tombs’s company surrenders to the advancing enemy and Tonry and Saunders retreat to Dunkirk. Tombs narrowly escapes as the rest of his company is massacred
but is later recaptured and spends the rest of the war in a POW camp.
Day 4: Tennant orders all vessels to be brought up to the eastern breakwater at once for embarkation as numbers on the beach swell. Churchill decrees that the wounded should be left behind to speed up the retreat. The enemy launch aerial attacks on the beaches from captured British airfields south of Dunkirk, sinking 30 British ships and leaving 400,000 allied troops stranded on the beach.
and Cpt. Michael Denny
at Dover issue the request for more inshore craft. Cpt. Tom Halsey
and navigator David Mellis hold off the coast while small boats ferry troops to it. BEF commander Lord Gort
, contemplating his unauthorised order to retreat from a villa overlooking the beach, organises a final defensive perimeter. French Adm. Jean Abriel
first learns of the British evacuation from Tennant as French troops swell the numbers on the beach. Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Pownall reports the problem to Churchill.
When the cockleboat Renown is amongst those small boats requisitioned Cpt. Harry Noakes and his crew volunteer to stay on for the mission to France. With the entire British fleet tied up in the rescue operation Churchill orders the gassing of Britain’s south coast to ward off invasion. Gort and Tennant argue over evacuation strategy as the HQ comes under artillery fire. Churchill refusing to send support to the beleaguered French at the Somme
agrees instead that their troop will be evacuated from Dunkirk on an equal basis.
Day 6: The Renown joins the hundreds of small craft that narrowly avoid running aground to rescue the troops from the French beaches. HMS Malcolm collects its passengers from the eastern breakwater, where it comes under bombardment. Maj-Gen Harold Alexander takes command after Gort is ordered back to London
. HMS Malcolm returns to Dover where Holsey and Mellis contemplate the friends that they have lost on other ships. The Renown safely delivers its passengers to Dover but is destroyed by a mine on its way home. Tonry and Saunders are amongst the two thirds of the BEF evacuated safely back to England but 200,000 allied troops remain on the beach as the perimeter comes under attack from advancing enemy forces.
and Maj. Angus McCorquodale of the Coldstream Guards receive orders to hold the perimeter for one last night. Abriel, learning from Alexander of the imminent British pullout that will leave many French troops still on the beach, threatens to close the port. Philip Newman cares for wounded left behind at the casualty clearing station in an abandoned château on the outskirts of Dunkirk. Alexander and Tennant promise Abriel one last day to evacuate the French troops.
Day 7: Langley’s company engages the enemy at dawn as an exhausted Newman struggles to get the wounded to safety. Tennant informs Newman of the policy to de-prioritise the wounded and asks him to hold out for one more day. Enemy troops advancing on the perimeter use civilians as a shield and Langley has to rely on rifle fire to hold them back. Holsey and Mellis arrive onboard HMS Malcolm on their fifth rescue mission under heavy aerial fire. Newman remains to care for the wounded with a skeleton staff as the rest of the station staff withdraw. As the rearguard pull out, leaving the perimeter to be defended by the French, a badly wounded Langley is abandoned on the beach.
Day 8: Desmond Thorogood arrives in Dunkirk but must wait till nightfall for rescue. Ramsay meticulously plans the night's operations. When it is over Tennant sends his last signal from Dunkirk and embarks for home where he gets his first sleep on the train to London.
Day 9: Newman discovers the abandoned Langley and takes him into the station. The French troops covering the evacuation didn’t make it out in time so another night’s operations are required to pull them out. HMS Malcolm set out on her ninth mission to Dunkirk.
Day 10: Returning safely to Dover the crew of HMS Malcolm are granted three days leave. The operation is deemed a success, Churchill looks to the skies for what will be the next threat of total war. Dunkirk finally falls to the enemy but the rescued troops of the BEF make up the core of Britain's wartime army.
2004 in television
The year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004–05 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
BBC television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
about the Battle of Dunkirk
Battle of Dunkirk
The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. A part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940.After the Phoney War, the Battle of...
and the Dunkirk evacuation in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Awards
- BAFTA Awards 2005British Academy Television Awards 2005The 2005 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 17 April at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The ceremony was hosted by Irish comedian and television presenter Graham Norton.-Winners:*Best Actor...
- Won: Huw Wheldon Award for Specialist Factual: Robert Warr & Alex Holmes
- Nominated: BAFTA TV Award for Best Editing (Factual): Oliver Huddleston
- Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming 2005
- Won: Golden FIPA for TV Series and Serials (Music): Samuel Sim
- Royal Television SocietyRoyal Television SocietyThe Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
2004- Nominated: RTS Television Award for Best Make Up Design (Entertainment & Non-Drama)
- Nominated: RTS Television Award for Best Sound (Entertainment & Non-Drama)
Episodes
Episode one: Retreat
Day 1: Cpt. Bill TennantWilliam Tennant (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir William George "Bill" Tennant KCB CBE MVO DL was a British naval officer. He was lauded for overseeing the successful evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. Tennant subsequently served as captain of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, when it searched for German capital ships in the Atlantic...
, RN, at the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
receives reports of the British Expeditionary Force
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....
's retreat and prepares to oversee Operation Dynamo
Operation Dynamo
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were...
. Pvt. Alf Tombs and his decimated company rest at Wormhoudt on the western end of the corridor to Dunkirk. New Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
chairs a briefing of the War Cabinet where Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax presses for peace negotiations. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
has halted the Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
giving Tombs’s company time to reinforce their position and signalmen Clive Tonry and Wilf Saunders return to offer support.
Day 2: Tennant sails from Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
on to find the Port of Dunkirk decimated by enemy bombardment. Divisions between Churchill and Halifax deepen over the proposed mediation of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
threatening a leadership crisis. Embarkation progresses slowly and Tennant signals the Queen of the Channel to come up alongside the eastern breakwater to speed up the process.
Day 3: Tonry and Saunders intercept enemy orders for a pincer movement on Dunkirk. Tombs’s company is forced to pull back as it comes under fire and Tonry and Saunders head into the front line in a last ditch attempt to hold open the corridor. After nine hours of fighting the line breaks as Tombs’s company surrenders to the advancing enemy and Tonry and Saunders retreat to Dunkirk. Tombs narrowly escapes as the rest of his company is massacred
Wormhoudt massacre
The Wormhoudt massacre was the mass murder of 80 British and French POWs by the Waffen SS during the Battle of France in May 1940.-Fighting:...
but is later recaptured and spends the rest of the war in a POW camp.
Day 4: Tennant orders all vessels to be brought up to the eastern breakwater at once for embarkation as numbers on the beach swell. Churchill decrees that the wounded should be left behind to speed up the retreat. The enemy launch aerial attacks on the beaches from captured British airfields south of Dunkirk, sinking 30 British ships and leaving 400,000 allied troops stranded on the beach.
Episode two: Evacuation
Day 5: V/Adm Bertram RamsayBertram Ramsay
Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay KCB, KBE, MVO was a British admiral during World War II. He was an important contributor in the field of amphibious warfare.-Early life:...
and Cpt. Michael Denny
Michael Denny
Admiral Sir Michael Maynard Denny GCB CBE DSO was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Third Sea Lord.-Naval career:...
at Dover issue the request for more inshore craft. Cpt. Tom Halsey
Sir Thomas Halsey, 3rd Baronet
Sir Thomas Edgar Halsey, 3rd Baronet DSO was an English cricketer, naval officer , and Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire....
and navigator David Mellis hold off the coast while small boats ferry troops to it. BEF commander Lord Gort
John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, MVO, MC , was a British and Anglo-Irish soldier. As a young officer in World War I he won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of the Canal du Nord. During the 1930s he served as Chief of the...
, contemplating his unauthorised order to retreat from a villa overlooking the beach, organises a final defensive perimeter. French Adm. Jean Abriel
Jean-Marie Charles Abrial
Jean-Marie Charles Abrial was a French Admiral and Naval Minister. He fought in both World wars, and was known mostly for his actions at Dunkirk in 1940.-Early years:...
first learns of the British evacuation from Tennant as French troops swell the numbers on the beach. Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Pownall reports the problem to Churchill.
When the cockleboat Renown is amongst those small boats requisitioned Cpt. Harry Noakes and his crew volunteer to stay on for the mission to France. With the entire British fleet tied up in the rescue operation Churchill orders the gassing of Britain’s south coast to ward off invasion. Gort and Tennant argue over evacuation strategy as the HQ comes under artillery fire. Churchill refusing to send support to the beleaguered French at the Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....
agrees instead that their troop will be evacuated from Dunkirk on an equal basis.
Day 6: The Renown joins the hundreds of small craft that narrowly avoid running aground to rescue the troops from the French beaches. HMS Malcolm collects its passengers from the eastern breakwater, where it comes under bombardment. Maj-Gen Harold Alexander takes command after Gort is ordered back to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. HMS Malcolm returns to Dover where Holsey and Mellis contemplate the friends that they have lost on other ships. The Renown safely delivers its passengers to Dover but is destroyed by a mine on its way home. Tonry and Saunders are amongst the two thirds of the BEF evacuated safely back to England but 200,000 allied troops remain on the beach as the perimeter comes under attack from advancing enemy forces.
Episode three: Deliverance
Day 6: Lt. Jimmy LangleyJames Langley
James Maydon "Jimmy" Langley MBE MC was an officer in the British Army, who served during World War II. Wounded and captured at the battle of Dunkirk, he later returned to Britain and served in MI9.-Biography:...
and Maj. Angus McCorquodale of the Coldstream Guards receive orders to hold the perimeter for one last night. Abriel, learning from Alexander of the imminent British pullout that will leave many French troops still on the beach, threatens to close the port. Philip Newman cares for wounded left behind at the casualty clearing station in an abandoned château on the outskirts of Dunkirk. Alexander and Tennant promise Abriel one last day to evacuate the French troops.
Day 7: Langley’s company engages the enemy at dawn as an exhausted Newman struggles to get the wounded to safety. Tennant informs Newman of the policy to de-prioritise the wounded and asks him to hold out for one more day. Enemy troops advancing on the perimeter use civilians as a shield and Langley has to rely on rifle fire to hold them back. Holsey and Mellis arrive onboard HMS Malcolm on their fifth rescue mission under heavy aerial fire. Newman remains to care for the wounded with a skeleton staff as the rest of the station staff withdraw. As the rearguard pull out, leaving the perimeter to be defended by the French, a badly wounded Langley is abandoned on the beach.
Day 8: Desmond Thorogood arrives in Dunkirk but must wait till nightfall for rescue. Ramsay meticulously plans the night's operations. When it is over Tennant sends his last signal from Dunkirk and embarks for home where he gets his first sleep on the train to London.
Day 9: Newman discovers the abandoned Langley and takes him into the station. The French troops covering the evacuation didn’t make it out in time so another night’s operations are required to pull them out. HMS Malcolm set out on her ninth mission to Dunkirk.
Day 10: Returning safely to Dover the crew of HMS Malcolm are granted three days leave. The operation is deemed a success, Churchill looks to the skies for what will be the next threat of total war. Dunkirk finally falls to the enemy but the rescued troops of the BEF make up the core of Britain's wartime army.
Cast
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John Carlisle (actor) John Carlisle is a British television and stage actor.John Carlisle had regular roles in Emergency - Ward 10, Scotland Yard on ABC, 1957–1958, and the London Weekend Television series New Scotland Yard as Detective Sergeant Ward.He also appeared in the BBC series The Omega Factor as the morally... as General Lord Gort John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, VC, GCB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, MVO, MC , was a British and Anglo-Irish soldier. As a young officer in World War I he won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of the Canal du Nord. During the 1930s he served as Chief of the... Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957... Christopher Good Christopher Good is a British actor best known for his work on television.Good has made many one-off or short-lived appearances in drama and comedy programmes, with Murder Most Horrid, Rumpole Of The Bailey, Danger UXB, The Choir and Pie In The Sky being among them... as Neville Chamberlain Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the... William Hope (actor) William "Bill" Hope is a Canadian stage, film, television and voice actor.-Career:Most of Hope's stage work has been leading roles in a wide variety of regional, touring and West End theatres in England.... as Cdr J Campbell Clouston James Campbell Clouston James Campbell Clouston was a Canadian officer of the British Royal Navy, who acted as pier-master during the Dunkirk evacuation, and who was lost when his motor launch was sunk by enemy aircraft.-Biography:... Joseph Mawle -Biography:Mawle graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2002 in the same year he appeared in the Irish Hurling TV adverts for Guinness. He began work in the theatre prior to training at Bristol mainly for Box Clever Theatre Company and in his own production of 'Solo Hamlet'He landed his... as Lieutenant Ian Cox Sir Thomas Halsey, 3rd Baronet Sir Thomas Edgar Halsey, 3rd Baronet DSO was an English cricketer, naval officer , and Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.... André Oumansky André Oumansky is a French actor. He appeared in more than eighty films since 1958.-Selected filmography:- External links :... as Admiral Jean Abrial Jean-Marie Charles Abrial Jean-Marie Charles Abrial was a French Admiral and Naval Minister. He fought in both World wars, and was known mostly for his actions at Dunkirk in 1940.-Early years:... Lee Ross (actor) Lee Ross is an English professional actor best known for his role as Dodger in Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest. He has also starred in, Press Gang, Secrets & Lies, The Catherine Tate Show and most recently as Owen Turner in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Career:His first acting role was as Fat Sam in... as Sergeant Moore Richard Sutton (actor) Richard Sutton is a British stage and screen actor.- Early Life :Richard "Rich" Sutton began acting very early on in his life, making his theatrical debut aged just twelve months old. He was born half a mile from the Jaguar plant in a very industrial part of Birmingham called Castle Vale... as Signalman Clive Tonry Daniel Weyman Daniel Weyman is an English actor. He has appeared in stage productions such as Sam West's Sheffield Crucible production of As You Like It and the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of David Edgar's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby... as Captain James Lynn-Allen Clive Wood -Film and television:Wood's first starring TV role was as Vic Brown, opposite Joanne Whalley and Susan Penhaligon, in the 1982 ITV drama series based on the novel A Kind of Loving. He has played Matt Kerr in Press Gang, DCI Gordon Wray in The Bill and Jack Morgan in London's Burning... as General Henry Pownall |
DVD release
- Released on Region 2 DVD by BBC Video as part of the BBC World War II DVD CollectionBBC History of World War IIBBC History of World War II is a 30-hour, 12-disc collection of 10 BBC television films about World War II. The films include documentaries, docudramas, and "dramatized documentaries" .-The films:BBC History of World War II is a 30-hour, 12-disc collection of 10 BBC television films...
.