Secret Army
During World War II, a Belgian resistance movement called Lifeline, based in Brussels, organises the return of Allied airmen who have been shot down by the Luftwaffe to the United Kingdom.
Cast:Bernard Hepton , Angela Richards , Clifford Rose , Juliet Hammond , Ron Pember , Valentine Dyall , Michael Culver , Jan Francis , Christopher Neame , Hazel McBride , Terrence Hardiman , Stephen Yardley , Robin Langford , Alan Chuntz , Neil Daglish , Maria Charles , James Bree , Paul Shelley
S3.E1 ∙ The Last Run
An instant mutual antipathy develops between Kessler and Brandt's replacement, Major Hans Dietrich Reinhardt. Albert and Monique are fearful when Reinhardt visits the Candide with a captured airman. Meanwhile Natalie is finding it increasingly difficult to travel through France with the airmen, because of the disruption to rail travel following the D-Day landings. Paul Vercors, the leader and sole surviving member of Max's cell, discovers Albert's involvement in Max's death and swears revenge.
S3.E2 ∙ Invasions
Lifeline realises it cannot get airmen away to Spain and decides it must keep them in hiding until the Allies liberate Brussels. Reinhardt and Kessler continue to clash. The Luftwaffe man's unorthodox methods show some success and he starts to identify the Lifeline safehouses. Two captives take their own lives rather than face torture, and a third remains silent under interrogation. The elderly Chantal sisters occupy another Lifeline safe house in France, and are rescued by Monique just before the Germans arrive.
S3.E3 ∙ Revenge
Albert gets word that the communists have set him up and he is about to be arrested on trumped-up charges. Kessler starts his investigation into Major Reinhardt's involvement in the 1944 Bomb Plot.
S3.E4 ∙ A Safe Place
With Albert on a murder charge trumped up by the Communist resistance, Monique has to cope with a British air ace who has been down the line and has now been captured by a fake escape-line set up by Reinhardt.
S3.E5 ∙ Ring of Rosies
With Albert still imprisoned, Monique and Pascal have to cope with airmen carrying the bubonic plague from North Africa.
S3.E6 ∙ Prisoner
While Kessler is on leave in Berlin, Alain is detained by the Gestapo. Newly returned Major Bradley brokers a deal for his escape with Germans made desperate by the Allied advance.
S3.E7 ∙ Ambush
Bradley recruits an escaping airman to help a resistance ambush. Meanwhile, Reinhardt pursues Brandt's interest in the Café Candide.
S3.E8 ∙ Just Light the Blue Touch-Paper
A permanent V2 site is discovered on the Belgian-Dutch border, and Bradley plans a raid with the resistance and the army of concealed airmen. Bradley introduces himself to Kessler (posing as a German colleague) and dines with him at the Candide to gain valuable information. Meanwhile, Reinhardt is making progress towards cracking Lifeline, and Natalie is suspected. Albert's lawyer Maitre Guissard contacts Reinhardt for information about the circumstances of the death of Albert's wife Andree. The Germans are preparing to evacuate and the atmosphere is becoming openly more hostile towards the remnants of the occupying forces.
S3.E9 ∙ Sound of Thunder
The Allied advance reaches Belgium, and the Germans are planning to leave Brussels. Bradley establishes contact with other members of the local resistance. Brussels residents are becoming openly hostile to both the Germans and those Belgians assumed to have collaborated. Madeleine has been attacked, but she only has Kessler to turn to. Reinhardt is now almost certain that Lifeline is based at the Candide and he tries to trap Natalie, now becoming romantically involved with Bradley, using a plant in the resistance. Natalie realises the danger at the last minute, and the supposed Communist is exposed as a spy when he fails to recognise Stalin's real name. After the man has been dealt with, Bradley is killed by German soldiers in the street on his way back to the Candide during curfew. The loss of his plant confirms Reinhardt's suspicions about the Candide.
S3.E10 ∙ Collaborator
Albert finally gets released from prison and returns to find 'Collaborator' graffiti on the restaurant. Locals are making open threats to the Candide staff, assuming they have collaborated and profited during the occupation. Alain has offered his farm as a refuge, but Albert will not leave his valuable business, leading to tension with Monique who is having second thoughts about their marriage plans. Natalie and Alain travel through the front line to contact British intelligence, and try to return with them to Brussels as protection for their colleagues. However, on the way back they run into a front line skirmish. As the Germans are vacating the Gestapo building, Reinhardt has captured an airman and the local woman who was hiding him. He wants to finally identify the Candide as Lifeline HQ. He confronts them in the restaurant, but releases his prisoners and turns himself over to Albert rather than take any action. Paul Vercors and his communist cell arrive and take Albert, Monique and Reinhardt prisoner, intending to kill them, in revenge for Max's death.
S3.E11 ∙ Days of Judgement
Vercors holds his three prisoners at an unknown location, and intends to execute Albert to avenge Max. Natalie manages to get help from the newly arrived Allies, and saves him just in time. But he is seriously affected by his ordeal. No one knows where Monique has been taken. Kessler is with Madeleine, who has hurt her ankle, trying to escape from Belgium through the countryside. Kessler swaps his identity with a dead German military officer, to disguise his position in the Gestapo, and obliterates the face of the dead German. He is subsequently captured by the British, and goes to a Canadian prisoner of war camp. He claims Madeleine was his hostage and she is 'liberated' by the Allies.
S3.E12 ∙ Bridgehead
Monique is about to face punishment for unfounded claims of collaboration, when Captain Stephen Durnford arrives on the scene. She goes to stay with Natalie at her flat, where Durnford pays her a further visit. Van Broecken is in the vicinity of Arnhem when he finds two German deserters aboard his barge. Natalie chides Albert for not visiting Monique. He believes that Monique will come back to him and the Candide in time. In the POW camp, Kessler has been identified by his fellow German captives but they agree to conceal his true identity from the Allies.
S3.E13 ∙ The Execution
Reinhardt is moved to a Canadian POW camp, and finds Kessler pretending to be a captured army officer. Reinhardt admits that he had given himself up to Albert in Brussels. Kessler betrays Reinhardt and presses for a court-martial. Although the senior German officer Oberst von Schalk knows Kessler's true identity and has contempt for Gestapo officers, he is concerned to preserve the reputation of the Wehrmacht. Although Hitler is now dead, Kessler insists on the court-martial being concluded. Reinhardt is shot by guns borrowed from the Canadians. Meanwhile, the final victory over Germany is declared. Madeleine bribes a Canadian officer to release Kessler (under his assumed name) and uses forged papers supplied semi-willingly by Monique for them to escape to a new life. The Lifeline members are awarded British military honours for their wartime work, and share out the money Albert has saved during the war. Despite his new financial security, Albert is romantically defeated. Monique marries Captain Durnford on VE Day. At the after-wedding party, the Lifeline members get together for one last time, and toast their survival and their missing friends.
S3.E14 ∙ What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
In 1969, Albert, Monique, Natalie and Alain contribute to a British television documentary "In Our Time" to mark the 25th anniversary of Brussels' liberation from the Nazis. Manfred Dorf, a German industrialist, is challenged by investigative journalists who (correctly) believe that he is Kessler. The ex-Lifeline members meet at the Candide, still owned by Albert, and reminisce about their common past.
