Tenko

''Based on real-life experiences, Tenko remains one of the most fondly remembered and acclaimed BBC dramas of the early 1980s. It follows a group of women, formerly comfortably well-off ex-pats living in Singapore, as they are captured by the Japanese during World War II.''

''The first season, set in 1941-42, charts the drama from the women being captured and sent to live in squalor and depravation in a Japanese POW camp.''

''Season 2, set in 1942-43, began with the women on a long march to a new camp, where things seem much more luxurious at first, but they find they have troubles settling into the strange regime of their new home.''

''The final season took up two years after the previous one, as the war drew to a close and the women were returned to their normal lives. Well, as normal as they could be after their imprisonment.''

''A two-part Christmas special, Tenko Reunion, picked up the lives of the surviving women five years later, reuniting them in Singapore, where treachery and deceit lay in wait for them.''

''An impeccable cast of terrific actresses made the prisoners' torment all the more believable, with Stephanie Beacham, Stephanie Cole and Ann Bell among the lead players. Tenko may have dated, after twenty years, but IMHO it remains as powerful and moving today as it did back then.moreless