Kessler (TV series)

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Kessler
Main title caption.
Format	Drama
Created by	John Brason Gerard Glaister
Starring	Clifford Rose Alan Dobie Nitza Saul Alison Glennie Nicholas Young Bernard Hepton
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	6
Production
Running time	50 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC
Original run	November 13, 1981 – December 18, 1981
External links
IMDb profile

Kessler DVD.

Kessler is a television series produced by the BBC in 1981.

The six-part serial is a sequel to the Second World War drama series Secret Army, set in the present day and following the progress of former SS Standartenführer Ludwig Kessler, now living under the alias of industrialist Manfred Dorf, and trying to avoid being discovered as a war criminal. Ranged against him are West German intelligence operative Richard Bauer (Alan Dobie) and young Israeli vigilante Mical Rak (Nitza Saul). Bauer and Rak's quest for justice moves from Europe to Paraguay, where other notorious real-life war criminals, Martin Borman and Josef Mengele are featured.

Another prominently placed character is Kessler's daughter Ingrid (Alison Glennie), an advocate of Nazism who schemes for the young Nazis to take over from the old guard and tries to persuade her father to give financial backing to their organisation.

The premise for Kessler has its origins in the unscreened final episode of Secret Army - "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?" - in which the main characters are reunited in 1969 to participate in a documentary entitled "In Our Time" about their lives during the war. This element was revived in Kessler with former Secret Army cast members Bernard Hepton (Albert Foiret), Angela Richards (Monique Durnford, née Duchamps) and Juliet Hammond-Hill (Natalie Chantrens) reprising their roles for the first episode, in which they meet again and reminisce about their wartime activities running the resistance organisation Lifeline.

Many other former Secret Army production personnel were involved with Kessler, most notably producer Gerard Glaister, writer John Brason and directors Michael E. Briant and Tristan de Vere Cole.

Kessler is available on DVD (Region 2, UK) from DD Home Entertainment, who had previously released the complete series of Secret Army.