The Sinking of the Laconia
| The Sinking of the Laconia | |
|---|---|
UK DVD cover
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| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Alan Bleasdale |
| Directed by | Uwe Janson |
| Starring |
Andrew Buchan Brian Cox Ken Duken Lindsay Duncan Matthias Koeberlin Thomas Kretschmann Frederick Lau Morven Christie Franka Potente Ludovico Fremont |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom Germany |
| Original language(s) | English & German |
| No. of episodes | 2x90 minutes |
| Production | |
| Running time | 180 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
BBC2 Das Erste SWR Fernsehen |
| Original release | 6 January, BBC2, 21:00 [Part 1] – 7 January 2011, BBC2, 21:00 [Part 2] |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Sinking of the Laconia is a two-part TV film, first aired on 6 and 7 January 2011 on BBC Two, about the Laconia incident; the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Laconia during World War II by a German U-boat, which then, together with three other U-boats and an Italian submarine, rescued the passengers but was in turn attacked by an American bomber.
The film is a British-German co-production, written by Alan Bleasdale, directed by Uwe Janson, and with Andrew Buchan, Brian Cox, Ken Duken, Morven Christie, Lindsay Duncan, Thomas Kretschmann and Franka Potente in the leading roles.
Six hundred miles from the coast of Africa, in September 1942, a German U-boat, U-156, sinks the British troopship Laconia which is en route from Cape Town to the United Kingdom.
When realising that there are POWs and civilians on board, and that they are facing certain death without rescue, U-boat Commander Werner Hartenstein (Duken) makes a decision which goes against the orders of German high command. The U-boat surfaces and Hartenstein instructs his men to save as many of the shipwrecked survivors as they can. Hartenstein also attempts to dive with all the survivors on board and, though this puts the submarine into a crash dive, control is regained and it resurfaces. He also has a Red Cross flag displayed and a message sent to the Allies to organise a rescue of the survivors. The Italian prisoners are taken off U-156 by another U-boat and an Italian submarine.
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Wikipedia