BBC Radio 4, 7 September 2012
It's 1997, and three surviving Special Operations Agents - Vera Atkins
(Stephanie Cole), John Harrison (David Jason), and Leo Marx (Anton Lesser) have been reunited for a television documentary.
As they are called one by one for interview, they begin to talk to each other about their experiences, and as they do so,
dark secrets about what actually happened during the war begin to emerge.
Philip Franks' production contrasted the mood of idealism at the start of Tony Blair's
government with the pessimism and disillusion of the SOE executives. Although the documentary was designed to celebrate their
achievements in securing victory for Britain over the Germans, none of them actually felt very heroic. On the contrary, they
all felt responsible in some way for the death of Patricia, a fellow-agent who had been tortured and executed at the hands
of the Gestapo.
As the drama unfolded, however, it became more and more evident that the agents'
disillusion was nothing more than a smoke-screen, designed to cover up what actually happened to Patricia, and how one of
the agents at least was directly responsible for her death. None of this emerged in the television documentary - which was
likewise treated as a smokescreen designed to obfuscate rather than reveal the truth (in spite of the young researcher
Chloe Wolf's (Sophie Roberts') protestations).
The play contrained three very strong performances. Jason's Harrison came across
as a bluff, hearty person, still fond of the ladies in spite of his advanced age. However there seemed to be details about
his life that he refused to discuss - for example, his mysterious disappearance from Britain after the war's end for nearly
three decades. Cole's Vera Atkins was much more reserved, preferring to devote herself to her crossword rather than discussing
the past. She appeared to be the least enthusiastic of the trio, in terms of wanting to do the documentary; but she revealed
her true motives later on. Lesser's Marx considered himself a small cog in a very big wheel during wartime; the documentary
provided him with a much-needed opportunity to make sense of his experiences.
This was a compelling piece with a genuinely unexpected ending. Well worth a listen.
