birdienl | The Sinking of the Laconia

Last week, I got to stare into the beautifully expressive face of Andrew Buchan for the third time in as many months. After his roles in Garrow's Law and The Nativity, he played the naval officer Thomas Mortimer in The Sinking of the Laconia. Ofcourse he was brilliant, as usual. He really seems to be a rising star in BBC-land and I hope we'll often see him in the future.

But The Sinking of the Laconia was a great drama in so many ways. I've been spoiled with wonderful period drama al through this winter: Downton Abbey, Garrow's Law, now Lark Rise has started again, but the most poignant drama I've seen was The Sinking of the Laconia. Great performances, an international cast, but above all a moving story. For those who don't know this true story: in 1942, RMS Laconia, on it's way from the South Cape to Great Brittain, was torpedoed by the German submarine of the coast of West Africa. When Werner Hartenstein, captain of the U-boat, discovered the Laconia was carrying Italian Prisoners of War and British civilians, he decided to rescue as much as he could, taking women, children and injured on board the submarine and many other survivors in lifeboats bound to the U-boat. An act of humanity in the middle of a war, which brought people who regarded each other as enemies close together. I cried multiple times and I hardly ever cry during tv shows or movies, so it shows how moving The Sinking of the Laconia was. Despite it 'only' consisting of two 1,5 hour episodes, you really get to care about the characters, which again is due to the excellent acting. I already mentioned Andrew Buchan, but who should really get a prize (or more than one) for this drama is Ken Duken, who played the U-boat captain Werner Hartenstein. Reminiscent of Michael Kitchen's Foyle (Foyle's War) he doesn't need to speak much to transfer the emotions of the captain, a look in his eyes or a hand through his hair says it all.

Besides all this, I just love WWII dramas and books. Sometimes I even feel guilty about enjoying stories about this black period in history. Why do we like watching and reading about the war so much? I think it might be because these stories show us the war brought out the best in people. The worst as well ofcourse, but we can read about that in the history books, but also the best: courage and perseverance people didn't know they possessed. The Sinking of the Laconia is one of those stories and therefore worth watching, enjoying and afterwards thinking about it. How would I have behaved in a similar situation?