THE GREAT ESCAPE: THE RECKONING

9pm Channel Four – Monday 2 November

The Great Escape is one of the most celebrated stories of World War II, immortalised in the iconic film.

Of the 76 Allied airmen who famously escaped in March 1944 from POW camp Stalag Luft III, deep in Nazi Germany, all but three were recaptured. Fifty of them were then shot dead by the Gestapo in a flagrant breach of the Geneva Convention.

As well as recounting the escape led by charismatic Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, this documentary tells the largely unknown yet incredible account of what happened next. This is the story beyond the Hollywood legend: the remorseless hunt throughout Europe for the men who murdered the Great Escapers, in a dark mission of detection and revenge that lasted into the 1960s.

The film features interviews with World War II historians, with escape survivors reliving their extraordinary experiences, and an interview with the daughter of the Gestapo officer executed for killing Roger Bushell. A relative of murdered Australian flying ace James Catanach, an important player in the Great Escape, is another interviewee.

Producer
ANDREA QUESNELLE

Executive Producers
ANDREW OGILVIE
PHIL CRAIG

Director
STEVE WESTH

Produced by Brook Lapping Productions and Electric Pictures in association with Channel 4, ABC Australia, History Channel and ScreenWest and the Government of Western Australia. Principal Investor, Screen Australia.