GREATEST
ESCAPES
GREAT
RAIDS OF WORLD WAR II
GREAT
SAS MISSIONS
(20 X 26 minute episodes)
THE SERIES
GREATEST ESCAPES
7 X 26 mins
The urge or desperate need to escape - whether from the clutches of one’s enemies, imprisonment, or from situations in which death seems inevitable - has prompted some of the greatest epics of human endurance and ingenuity. This series looks at seven of the extraordinary situations in which human beings have found themselves and from which they managed to get away. Sometimes, as in the case of the supposedly escape-proof prison of Alcatraz, the individuals concerned may have been no angels, but the determination and courage they showed was almost admirable. Sometimes as in the case of the living hell of Auschwitz the desperate need to let the world know what atrocities were being committed drove people to take almost superhuman risks.
RAIDS OF WORLD WAR II
6 X 26 mins
World War II was the greatest military confrontation the world has ever known. On land and sea and in the air the scale of the conflict was unprecedented. But amid the great campaigns were many smaller-scale operations which were vital to Allied success - occasions when small numbers of men could have an effect out of all proportion to their numbers; occasions when the course of the war hinged on their courage and daring. This series looks at six such raids. With the use of veterans’ accounts; carefully researched archive film; meticulous reconstructions and 3-D graphics the viewer is put right into the heart of the action - whether it was foiling Hitler’s attempts to acquire an atomic bomb, or discovering the secrets of the air defences of the Nazi Reich.
GREAT SAS MISSIONS
7 X 26 mins
Over the past 60 years Britain’s Special Air Service regiment has carried out a wide variety of clandestine missions - from deep-penetration raiding to hostage release operations - which have made it respected and feared for its professionalism and daring. The SAS prides itself on doing its work in the shadows, never allowing any publicity and never claiming credit for any of its extraordinary achievements. But, over the years, sufficient information has emerged for a picture of the regiment’s exploits to be clear. This series uses interviews with former members of the SAS; detailed and painstaking reconstructions; and cutting edge 3-D graphics to recreate seven great missions which show why the SAS is today regarded as the world’s leading special forces unit.
FOR WORLDWIDE TV, PUBLISHING AND MERCHANDISING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
BBC WORLDWIDE
WOODLANDS
80 WOOD LANE
LONDON
W12 0TT
TEL: 0208 433 2261
FAX: 0208 433 3944
FOR WORLDWIDE VIDEO AND ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
STUART SNAITH
MANAGING DIRECTOR
2 ENTERTAIN
33 FOLEY STREET
LONDON
W1W 7TL
TEL: 44 (0) 20 7612 3100
FAX: 44 (0) 20 7612 3053
E-MAIL: stuart.snaith@2entertain.co.uk
THE STORIES
(each programme = 26 minutes)
GREATEST ESCAPES
GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 1
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ
Alcatraz, ‘the Rock’, was home to America’s most notorious prisoners. Set on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, surrounded by guards and swirling treacherous waters - no one was supposed to escape from it and live. There were some who attempted to escape off this Devil’s island; most never made it but in at least one case it is almost certain that two desperate men defied all the odds and escaped to the mainland.
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GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 2
ESCAPE FROM APOLLO 13
Space travel is the boldest of man’s adventures, reaching further, flying faster. But just when it begins to seem routine, tragedy strikes. Back in 1970 a moment of terror made the world hold its breath. On a mission to the moon Apollo 13 suffered a catastrophic explosion. Could the astronauts be brought back alive, or were they doomed to a cold and suffocating death in space?
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GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 3
ESCAPE FROM ARNHEM
The British airborne assault on the bridges at Arnhem in September 1944 was meant to cut months off the end of the war and save thousands of lives. But it was a bridge too far. The paratroops were surrounded by elite Nazi units and forced to surrender after an heroic last stand. But hundreds managed to evade capture and after weeks behind enemy lines were saved.
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GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 4
ESCAPE FROM COLDITZ
High on a cliff in eastern Germany, Colditz Castle was Hitler’s highest security prison for his most troublesome prisoners of war. Its outside walls were rock seven feet thick, the guards outnumbered the inmates. The Nazis claimed that it was escape proof, but some of its prisoners only took this as a challenge, and with great daring and imagination more than 60 proved them wrong.
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GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 5
ESCAPE FROM AUSCHWITZ
Auschwitz was the epitome of Nazi evil. It was the largest and most notorious of German extermination camps, and millions were transported there never to return. But there were people who were determined to escape from this industrial murder machine and tell the world the truth and horrors of what really was happening. Their stories are among the most heroic and harrowing ever told.
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GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 6
ESCAPE FROM DUNKIRK
It was the biggest escape of all. In June 1940 more than 340,000 British, French, and Belgium troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, surrounded by Hitler’s triumphant Panzers. As Stukas divebombed them relentlessly they seemed doomed, and with them Britain’s chances of survival. Then, an extraordinary armada of little craft was assembled to save them from capture.
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GREATEST ESCAPES - Programme 7
ESCAPE FROM RED BERLIN
On 13 August 1961 the Communist government of East Germany began a great experiment - locking up an entire nation of 16 million people. A wall was built through the centre of Berlin which completed the isolation of the Communist East from the capitalist West. But thousands of East Berliners refused to accept their fate. Over the next 28 years more than 5000 men, women and children risked their lives in extraordinary ways to reach freedom.
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GREAT RAIDS OF WORLD WAR II - Programme 1
STOPPING HITLER’S A-BOMB
It was Hitler’s deadliest secret - his scientists had promised him an atomic bomb. If he got it first, Nazi domination was assured. But the Germans needed one ingredient - heavy water - which was only produced in one factory - deep in the heart of occupied Norway. In 1943 a team of Norwegian raiders was sent to destroy it - their success or failure could decide the outcome of the war.
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GREAT RAIDS OF WORLD WAR II - Programme 2
PRISON BUSTERS
In late 1943, the Resistance asked for help - some of their top operatives were being held in Amiens prison and facing interrogation, torture and execution. They must be rescued. The plan which evolved depended on a very special aircraft - the Mosquito fighter-bomber - and the skill and courage of its pilots in flying low enough to breach the prison walls with their bombs.
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GREAT RAIDS OF WORLD WAR II - Programme 3
RADAR BEAM RAIDERS
As RAF Bomber Command began to strike back at Nazi Germany, it was soon suffering unsustainable losses from the Nazi air defence system. At its heart were as yet unidentified radar systems using wavelengths which urgently needed to be cracked. At last, in December 1941 a key German radar installation was located at Bruneval near the French North Sea coast, and a team of Britain’s new paratroops were sent in to seize it.
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GREAT RAIDS OF WORLD WAR II - Programme 4
STORM AT ST. NAZAIRE
The great dry dock at St Nazaire was the only one on the Atlantic coast of occupied Europe large enough to repair Germany’s giant battleship Tirpitz. If it could be put out of action the chances of the Nazi raider threatening Britain’s Atlantic lifeline would be greatly reduced. On 26 March 1942 the destroyer HMS Campbeltown, packed with commandos and explosives set out on a daring mission to achieve this.
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GREAT RAIDS OF WORLD WAR 2 - Programme 5
COCKLESHELL RAIDERS
The French port of Bordeaux was vital to Hitler’s war machine. Through it came many of the vital raw materials from the Far East essential to keep the Nazi armies fighting. But Bordeaux was 90 miles up the heavily-guarded Gironde river and seemingly unassailable. Then Royal Marine Major ‘Blondie’ Hasler came up with the idea of a sending a special raiding force in canoes.
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GREAT RAIDS OF WORLD WAR 2 - Programme 6
ARCTIC COMMANDO ASSAULT
As Britain faced Nazi Germany alone in July 1940, Winston Churchill’s response was to set up the Commandos - an elite fighting force to raid enemy coasts. In December 1941 on his orders a major assault on Vaagso in northern Norway, convinced Hitler that the country was a vital strategic target. Subsequently more than 250,000 Nazi troops were pinned down there uselessly for the rest of the war.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 1
BIRTH OF THE SAS
As the Panzers of Rommel’s Afrika Korps swept the British back into Egypt in 1941, a young commando lieutenant, David Stirling, persuaded his superiors to allow him to set up a special deep-penetration unit which could cause havoc behind enemy lines. Its first mission was a disaster but soon Stirling and the mavericks he had gathered proved that they had a valuable covert role to play.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 2
DESTROYING HITLER’S AIRFIELDS
After its initial and near-fatal problems the SAS changed its tactics - using its own heavily-armed jeeps to strike deep behind enemy lines attacking German and Italian airfields and supply lines. By the time the fighting in North Africa ended, the exploits of the unit were fast becoming legend - but it had lost its founder and was again struggling to survive.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 3
DECEPTION ON D-DAY
As the Allies landed on D-Day to begin the liberation of Europe, the SAS used the skills it had honed in the desert in this new theatre of war. On the night before the landings, teams were parachuted in to create havoc and distract the German defenders. Then the armed jeeps ranged deep behind the enemy’s lines attacking reinforcements and communications.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 4
HUNTING HITLER’S TERROR WEAPONS
As the Allies broke out of their Normandy beachhead and swept towards the German border, the SAS continued its deep penetration role. But the regiment was also called on for other vital tasks - tracking down Hitler’s mobile and elusive V-2 rocket launchers, and then hunting the Nazi war criminals that had killed members of the SAS in cold blood.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 5
LIBERATING THE IRANIAN EMBASSY
After World War II the SAS was disbanded, but it was soon realised that its special skills would be needed in the volatile post-war situation. The regiment was clandestinely rebuilt and undertook a variety of secret missions. Then in 1981 it hit the headlines when terrorists holding hostages in the Iranian Embassy were swiftly and successfully eliminated and their captives freed.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 6
RETAKING THE FALKLANDS
When the British Task Force sailed to take back the Falkand Islands from Argentine occupation, two squadrons of the SAS went with it. Over the next few weeks they were involved in a variety of surveillance missions, and a vital and brilliantly executed raid on an Argentine airstrip on Pebble Island which effectively eliminated all enemy air power on the Falklands.
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GREAT SAS MISSIONS - Programme 7
DESERT STORM SCUDBUSTERS
In the Gulf wars of 1992 and 2003, the SAS returned to its roots as deep penetration teams fanned out into the Iraqi desert. Their missions ranged from disrupting supply lines and communications and raiding airfields, to the vital task of tracking down Saddam Hussein’s Scud missile launchers which were being used to deadly effect and threatening to destroy the coalition against him.
For video availability click here.
FOR WORLDWIDE TV, PUBLISHING AND MERCHANDISING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
BBC WORLDWIDE
WOODLANDS
80 WOOD LANE
LONDON
W12 0TT
TEL: 0208 433 2261
FAX: 0208 433 3944
FOR WORLDWIDE VIDEO AND ALL PUBLISHING RIGHTS
PLEASE CONTACT:
STUART SNAITH
MANAGING DIRECTOR
2 ENTERTAIN
33 FOLEY STREET
LONDON
W1W 7TL
TEL: 44 (0) 20 7612 3100
FAX: 44 (0) 20 7612 3053
E-MAIL: stuart.snaith@2entertain.co.u