"Enemy at the Door" Angels That Soar Above (TV Episode 1980) Poster

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8/10
Stone Walls Do Not A Prison Make
ygwerin120 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I am watching this Episode for the first time on the Talking Pictures TV Channel, until I read the Trivia I had no idea where the Episode Title came from.

I know of the poem, its title and author though not directly from reading it, but from the recording of it in song.

By the English folk group Fairport Convention, they recorded the song From Althea to Prison on their album Nine.

I can understand the use of this for the Episode as in view of, the subject matter it is quite apposite.

Dr. Martell has been released from German Imprisonment in France, his experiences very much colouring his future outlook on life.

So he is particularly astonished to discover that Oberst Richter, has requested to see him.

What Dr. Martell finds especially hard to come to terms with is, endeavouring to reconcile the differing attitudes of the German Administration.

The real problem for Dr. Martell is that it had to take a personal experience, to finally start to come to terms with Germany's true rationale.

Dr. Martell's daughter had tried to warn him, but had he become too close to Oberst Richter?

Dr. Martell had worked with the Civilian Body on Guernsey, set up to deal with the German Administration.

Had this closeness inured Dr. Martell however understandably, from the stark reality of German Occupation?
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6/10
Angels That Soar Above
Prismark1016 March 2022
The title comes from the lines of poetry that Dr Martel tried to remember while he was in prison.

He returns to Guernsey as a broken but defiant man. He has spent 179 days in captivity in a prison in France.

Colonel Richter wants to meet him first. Give him a wash and shave as he stinks. He arrived on the island in a cattle boat.

There is an interesting discussion about the relative civility of the occupation of the Channel islands over the last two years.

Dr Martel have found in prison about German non civility first hand. The treatment of the French, Germans and Jews.

It fires up his resistance as he reunites with his wife and hears what has happened to his daughter. Dr Martel does not blame Claire or Peter Porteous.

There was a lot of interesting subtext regarding how much the Channel islanders were cooperating with the invaders. In the end they were imprisoned as well, just that there were no stone walls.
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