Last night we finished watching Secret Army. After nearly two months of it being a nightly ritual, I am really going to miss it. Fortunately, I still have one of the special features (interviews with some of the cast) still to watch, as well as Home Run to finish reading, so I will be able to slowly withdraw from it. :-)

( cut for spoilers and because I know I keep rabbiting on about this series! )

I shall really miss watching this! Am now on the look-out for Kessler and Wish Me Luck to take the WWII viewing theme into winter.

ION, I see that Girls Gone By are publishing The League of the Smallest later this year. I never could get into Clare Mallory (I can't stand 'crack house' school stories!), but have always liked the idea of this book, being on the shorter side myself!

Plus, now I've finally upgraded from basic, I'm discovering new things I can do on LJ (or perhaps I always could do them and never looked around before), such as layouts and links, and posting photographs. Wish I'd upgraded before now!

I went to Borders today and, while I didn't find any of the recommended books (not even the Miep Gies one, which surprised me), I found and bought a book called Home Run: Escape from Nazi Europe by John Nichol and Tony Rennell. It's about stranded soldiers and shot-down airmen who travelled back to Britain from the occupied countries via escape lines – in other words, Secret Army in real life. I've started it and it looks as if it's going to be a good read.

I keep hoping to find the Jane Beaton adult school story, First Year at Downey House, but it looks as if it's not going to be released here. I'll have to buy it when I'm in England.

In contrast to the last three weekends, this weekend has been very lazy, with late breakfasts, lots of games of swingball in the back yard with Gabe, and pleasant afternoons out in the sun imbibing either red (yesterday) or rosé (today) wine. And, of course, Secret Army in the evening. My favourite character died last night. :-(  Tonight we start on Season 3.

Yesterday was the first day I was able to relax in what seems like ages. For the past few weeks I've been manically editing an enormous encyclopedia of Australasian crime, which I'd fallen behind with during the bushfire situation. But I sent it back on time, phew.

And in what couldn't have been better timing, the Autumn and Winter copies of Folly arrived in yesterday's post. My subscription expired before last Autumn's edition, and I didn't renew then because of exchange rates. But I'm now re-subscribed and it was good to catch up with them. I particularly love the illustrations in Folly. And, also well timed, we now have a new free-to-air digital channel that's all sport. Something to watch at last!

I also made the most of beautiful autumn weather to go for a long walk.

So, what else? Well, Hawthorn lost their opening game last night, to Geelong (Gabe's team) who they beat in last year's Grand Final. I was expecting that (it's a fairly normal thing for reigning champions to lose their opening game, in most sports) and the winning margin was slim, so I remain optimistic about back-to-back Premierships. Hawthorn and Geelong will be the two teams to watch all year, I think.

And we are still watching Secret Army. We are near the end of Season 2 now. I cannot believe how good it is compared with today's TV. Each episode is an hour and the characterisation is superb. You see shades of grey in all the characters, and at times even feel some sympathy for the head of the Gestapo, Kessler. So much time and detail has gone into it, and the writing and acting is excellent. I shall really miss it when we've watched the final series, though apparently there's a spin-off, Kessler, which I'll try to get hold of. And maybe I'll get Wish Me Luck, about women agents in occupied France, which I never watched when it was on telly in the 1980s.

I haven't been reading much at all this year. I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird and am now wondering whether to read some of the unread books on my bookshelves or whether to go to the bookshop this weekend and find something new. After watching Secret Army, I've a hankering to read some non-fiction about the Second World War, so if anyone knows of any really good books, please recommend. I mean human-interest type books,  rather than military ones.

I am frantically trying to play catch-up on an enormous editing job that I started in February, but which I lost a great deal of time on because of the fire situation. I'm working weekends as well as in the week at the moment, which is why I'm not around much right now.

Anyway, at night when I've downed tools for the day and Gabe has gone to bed, Grant and I are working our way through the complete DVD set of Secret Army. Secret Army was a TV drama that was on TV in the late 1970s (and, I think, early 1980s) and is about a group of people who run an escape line for British airmen to return them to the UK when they've been shot down. It's centred on a cafe in Brussels. Sounds familiar? Well, yes, the comedy series 'Allo, 'Allo was a send-up of this show.





Anyway, it is fantastic - well acted, well scripted, some interesting characters. The escape line is run by a woman, Lisa, which is terrific and was probably revolutionary for 1970s TV drama.  The cafe owner Albert, like his comedy counterpart Rene, is having an affair with his employee. There's an Englishman working with them, who fancies Lisa, and she sort of fancies him but doesn't trust him. Then there are the Germans (no crush on Albert here, though) - the subversive head of the Luftwaffe, Brandt, who dislikes and is always trying to outwit the Gestapo man, Kessler.  

But! It is grim. Unrelentingly grim. There's never a happy ending to the episodes, even if kids are involved. It's as if Thomas Hardy himself wrote Secret Army, with anything that could go wrong going wrong. So probably it's not the best bedtime viewing - the other night, after watching it, I dreamt I was being chased by Nazis. But it's compulsive and I find myself looking forward to it at the end of the day, along with a glass of red.

Secret Army does, of course, get an honourary mention in AF's Run Away Home. Two actually, IIRC. I think Lawrie watches it, and I think either Edward or one of Karen's stepkids watches it too. Actually Run Away Home isn't unlike an episode of Secret Army, with the Marlows forming an escape line (one doing their bit and handing over to the next person on the line), and even part of the ending - ( cut for spoiler )- has a touch of Secret Army  gloom about it.