Manhunt (TV serial)

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Manhunt was a World War II drama in 26 episodes, produced by London Weekend Television in 1969 and broadcast nationwide. It featured a number of Britain's finest actors in excellent roles.

[edit] Synopsis

Jimmy Porter (Alfred Lynch) is on the run from the Nazis in Occupied France. He has a mission to get Nina (Cyd Hayman), a part-Jewish agent with important information, back to Britain. He is helped by another agent, code-named Vincent, (Peter Barkworth) and opposed by S.S. Officer Lutz (Philip Madoc). In the middle of this is the ambivalent Abwehr Sgt. Gratz (Robert Hardy), who is or has been Nina's lover.

Unlike most previous war dramas, the Nazis were presented as more than just fanatic thugs. While Lutz was close to the stereotype, although given great depth by Philip Madoc, Gratz could not have been more different.

In the end, both Nina and Porter return to Britain, at the cost of several lives. Having been forced together while fleeing, they find they have nothing in common back home and cease their budding relationship. According to Gratz, he had managed to get most of the information from Nina as "pillow talk". One is left feeling that the whole effort, and by implication the war itself, was a futile exercise.

[edit] Notes

The name Jimmy Porter is a clear reference to the main character in the play Look Back in Anger. Coincidentally Alfred Lynch acted in the film version of the play.
The Allied agents identify themselves to each other throughout the story with the challenge "What is war ?" to which the answer is "War is love". This may be an intentional reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell (Party slogan "War is Peace" and war prosecuted by a "Ministry of Love") as well as an ironic comment on the dramatic subplots. If the Orwell reference is real, there is a slight anachronism, as the book was written in 1948, after the war was over.
The musical theme was taken from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which features the famous rhythm used to introduce radio broadcasts to Nazi occupied territories, and also signfies the letter "V", for Victory, in Morse Code.