This was just sad. I mean I expected a prison escape flick and I get a soap opera that's beyond ridiculous. To come up with a scenario where a Scot who never wanted to be in the war to begin with, escapes, then comes home and becomes a member of MI9, proceeds to steal one of his fellow escapees girl then weaves his way through a nefarious plan to silence anyone who knows about it. I'm pretty sure that there's no girl on earth worth this kind of duplicity. This plot deserved a Soap Opera run. It didn't deserve anything from the BBC.I will say Damian Lewis shines though. He's good in anything he does. Very versatile actor. Laurence Fox does fairly well also but this plot was just not even remotely believable. Damn shame it didn't get a batter writer for it.

Colditz is a castle near Leipzig where during WW II the Nazis held Allied troops who were particularly at risk as escape artists. Many of the men had escaped POW camps prior to their incarceration in the huge castle, and the man in charge of the prison warns every new inmate that the castle is impenetrable: there is no possibility of escaping and those who attempt will be killed.The film begins in London 1939 as men are preparing to leave for the front. Among them is a slightly naive but warmly human lad, Jack Rose (Tom Hardy) who has fallen in love with Lizzie (Sophia Myles), in a sweet, innocent union that represents the concept of 'the love we leave behind'. Jack leaves for duty with fellow soldiers Nicholas McGrade (Damian Lewis) and Tom Willis (Lawrence Fox) and soon they are captured by the Nazis and placed in a POW camp. Of course, being cunning lads, they soon escape only to be captured again and sent to the ominous Colditz - all except Nick. There they bond with men from home such as artist Sawyer (Guy Henry) and from other countries including France and Canada - among them Rhett Barker (Jason Priestly) who is a manipulator able to buy goods from Nazi guards including drugs to which he is addicted.Nick is sent back to London where he meets Lizzie to tell her of Jack's safety. In time the two feel an attraction that proves to have fatal consequences because of Nick's obsession to have Lizzie to himself. Meanwhile the men in Colditz attempt multiple escapes only to be caught each time and put into solitary confinement. The drive to escape is aided by all of the inmates and yet their efforts are thwarted by colleagues turned informers for their own selfish needs. Artist Sawyer does escape and is assigned in London with the Intelligence outfit with Nick: he learns that supposedly Jack has been reported as killed in action (a letter forged by Nick to gain access to Lizzie's emotions) and the remainder of the story concerns the end of the war, the release of the prisoners from Colditz, and the fatal schism between the returning Jack and his rival Nick over the love of Lizzie.Director Stuart Orme manages to keep the pace of this over three hour long film, allowing the viewer to meet and understand and care about a very large cast of characters (writers Richard Cottan and Peter Morgan have created deft personalities). Filmed in London and the Czech Republic the atmosphere is correctly captured and the large cast of characters includes many very fine cameos. If there is a single message to summarize a complex story, it is the old adage 'brothers in arms, rivals in love'. This made for television miniseries is well acted and is another opportunity to see the background stories of World War II. Recommended viewing. Grady Harp

I enjoyed watching "Colditz" very much. However I was extremely disappointed in the character of Bunny Warren, played by Timothy West. This character is based on the war activities of Clayton Hutton (always known as Clutty). He was a remarkable man and I commend his book "Official Secret" as a true guide to the man. Clutty was one of those unsung heroes of those days who played a vital role during those dark days. To portray him as some kind of bumbling, irascible "boffin" does great discredit to the man. The writers of "Colditz" should be ashamed of their manner in which they presented him in this drama. He deserves better than that.

As we were going out on the night - Escape from Colditz was run on Channel 7 in Sydney - we decided to tape the movie. However, the channel was running late in it's programming and we did not get to see the last part of it. We were absolutely riveted watching the movie and feel so disappointed that we never got to see the end. We saw Jack Rose escape from the Safe House, but do not know what happened to him. We do not know also, how the romance between the other two went. We were wondering if someone knew where we could get the movie out either on DVD or on Video tape? The scenery was well done right throughout the movie as was the acting.