Absolutely Fantastic

A different way of telling a story

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I looked into this show after seeing Secret Army, everyone's old favorite. Colditz was actually made before Secret Army though. Many of the same actors make appearances. They come up with great stories with lots of nerve-wracking suspense, just like S.A. did.Also like S.A., it's interesting how the good guys and bad guys are not so clear. Sometimes fellow prisoners are the villain; sometimes the Germans end up being unlikely saviors. The Germans even have enemies of their own in the SS, who are itching to get their hands on the camp and run it their own brutal way. The Germans are actual well-rounded characters, as well. They are as much a part of the story as the prisoners. They are not portrayed as just generic goons thwarted at every turn.I agree with one other reviewer (although not quite as strongly) that the series wasn't quite as good in the second season. The first season finale with Carrington and Grant's big home run was the pinnacle, and it left me very excited to see what happened in the second season, but unfortunately I was a little disappointed. Still worth watching, but perhaps they set the bar a little too high for themselves in the first season.I'd say my favorite episodes were Tweedledum, Gone Away (parts I and II) Odd Man In, and Chameleon (just because I laughed out loud when Mohn was trying to buddy up to the prisoners to save his own sorry butt) A couple things I didn't really like: - Lt. Dick Player is inexplicably absent from the final few episodes... Kind of sucks because he was easily one of the most interesting characters.Some of the Americans who show up towards the end have awful accents. I looked it up and I think Phil Carrington might be the only American character played by an American actor.I found the ending rather... Anticlimactic. I'm not sure if it's because I accidentally read the synopsis of the last episode on Wikipedia, and thus the suspense was ruined for me, but I think it could have been done a little better.Overall, good show. I'll probably watch it again in a few months.

One reviewer mentions Colditz as being shown on History Channel. Oops, missed it. Anyway, I recall in the early 1970s(?), Robert Wagner discussing this series on the Tonight Show, and, others of the ilk. I'm guessing that he, and others, assumed this would be picked up by US television. It was the dawning of the age of the mini-series, and, other Brit produced shows had done well. Especially on PBS. Never happened, and, apparently no DVD release either. Will this go down in tele-history as one of the great series that never was ? Earlier flick The Colditz Story is great. One wonders what the producers did with more than two hours to fill.

Being a great fan of Secret Army, I am one of the many people who have bought up the recent DVD release ... and from what I understand ... the producers did Colditz before SA ... it won British Academy Awards and was extremely popular.After the great success of the Secret Army DVD releases, isn't it time Colditz was released on DVD too? I would definitely buy it. What do you think guys?There is just so much good stuff from the 1970's and 60's .... it was a classic periodThe more people asking for some of it on DVD, the more likely we are to actually have it released.

This outstanding series is the kind of psychological drama at which the British excell. Set almost entirely within a reconstruction of the now-famous castle-fortress prisoner-of-war camp during WWII, there is little in the way of physical action. Instead we're treated to some of the best form of "mind games" and psychological manoeuvring and competition you can hope to see on TV, as the two sides constantly strive to get one over on the other. The Allied prisoners are determined not to be beaten mentally by their surroundings and look for every possible means of escape, while the Germans are always on their toes, looking for clues about possible break-outs and ways in which the Allied prisoners are trying to outsmart them. I couldn't tear myself away from the series when it first came out in Britain, and I was pleased to see how little it had aged when it was reshown on the History Channel a couple of years ago. Excellent acting and strong story lines make this a must-see for me. Out of 10, I'd rank it about 13.6!!