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kindkitAs the title says, this is not an objective or comprehensive discussion of Colditz. It's an overview of characters and relationships (some extrapolated from canon, some pure invention) that I may be writing about in my Kink Bingo fics: basically I'm envisioning this as a cheat sheet for anyone who wants to read the stories (THANK YOU!) but doesn't want to invest the time to watch 27 one-hour episodes. I'll avoid major plot spoilers, though, in case you decide to give the show a try.
I have an immensely detailed head-canon for these characters, which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
halotolerant and I have developed together through our rewatch and tons of discussion. I won't bore you with too much of it but occasionally some will be relevant. And for your viewing pleasure, I've included screencaps and some links to YouTube clips. The clips are of the crap visual quality that you'd expect from YouTube and sometimes the sound and picture are out of synch, but I recommend giving them a look to see how these people speak and relate to each other.
Some very basic introductory information, to start with. The BBC program Colditz ran for two series, in 1972 and 1974. It tells the fictionalized story of a real POW camp, Oflag (officers' camp) IVC, located in Colditz Castle near Leipzig. Colditz was a "special camp" for officers who had a history of escape attempts or troublemaking of one kind or another, and after the war, due to ex-POWs memoirs, it became somewhat unfairly iconic of the POW experience. The show follows the camp and its inmates and staff from 1940 to the war's end, with stories focusing on successful and unsuccessful escapes as well as day-to-day life.
On to the characters, beginning in this installment with the two who have the most canonical justification as a pairing.
Pat Grant (played by Edward Hardwicke)
Pat Grant is based fairly closely on real-life Colditz escaper and memoirist Pat Reid, who was a consultant on the program. Perhaps for this reason, Pat isn't given a lot of backstory or obvious character development, since the writers and producers didn't want to include anything the rather touchy Reid might take as insulting. But Hardwicke does a great job infusing life into an underwritten character.
Pat is pragmatic (an engineer in civilian life) and good at planning. These skills lead him to become Escape Officer in Colditz. He vets plans and coordinates preparation for escapes, but due to his EO role is not himself eligible to escape. Initially Pat is somewhat intolerant of what he sees as weakness or giving up, but as time passes he grows more patient and more aware of the risks of escaping. He's also tremendously kind, very much a caretaker and almost a mother figure, the sort of person who, if you're just coming out of solitary confinement, will ensure that you get a tin of peaches as a treat. With a pretty blue ribbon tied around the tin.
(This scene can be viewed here and is well worth watching for the character interactions; Dick's response to the sight of the peaches is priceless, and so is Simon Carter's enthusiasm for eating them. The scene starts about ten seconds in. I'd recommend holding off on watching this until you're read the introductions to the other characters, though.)
Dick Player (played by Christopher Neame)
Lieutenant Richard Roxborough Player, RN, known to all as Dick (best name EVER, and I'm half convinced that it's deliberate) is a young officer from a privileged and unusual background. His father was a senior diplomat stationed in Germany; Dick spent much of his childhood in Germany, speaks fluent German, and has German friends. He's rich (casually referring to friends in St. Tropez with a yacht, or friends in England who are digging up the tennis courts to plant a garden for the war effort), strikingly good-looking, charming, friendly, self-confident without being arrogant, but more emotionally vulnerable than he likes to let on.
He's also, in my head-canon, gayer than a very gay thing. Okay, fine, almost all of them are gay in my head-canon, or at least bisexual. But Dick is the only character who I would argue is coded queer in canon. He's not married and never mentions a girlfriend, past or present, and shows no interest in a woman he meets during an escape attempt. He flirts with lots of men, though, right down to the guard who escorts him on a trip to the dentist. And in his first episode he has incredible subtext with an "old friend," Paul von Eissinger, who for his part might as well have GAY written on his forehead. The backstory here is that Dick was captured out of uniform, the Gestapo have accused him of being a spy, and he's said that Paul (who is a diplomat and a titled aristocrat, Graf Eissinger, and hence an influential personage) can vouch for his identity. You can watch their meeting here starting at 9:28 and continuing here. I recommend it not just for the subtext but for the politics, as Paul tries to recruit Dick into a scheme to overthrow Hitler at the cost of a British surrender. (Incidentally, the sores on Dick's lips in these scenes are due to salt water and cold--his submarine was torpedoed and he was adrift for at least 24 hours. They go away.)
In Colditz, Dick and Pat Grant become close and highly slashable friends. One of the odd delights of the show is watching their friendship; it's almost unstated and easy to miss on first viewing when you're paying attention to the plot, but very clear if you focus on gestures, blocking, and body language. They're together onscreen a lot. They talk together and share, in an understated way, their worries.
After a couple of episodes they "move in together," by starting to share a bunk where previously they'd been in separate ones. They share cigarettes (passing a single cigarette back and forth) and are the only two characters who do so. My favorite cigarette-sharing clip, in part because it also features Dick using his Sexy Voice to tell Pat about an erotic dream he's had, is tragically not online, but another one is here at 0:30; this nice little moment shows their unspoken rapport.
They even wash up together, sharing soap and a towel with accustomed intimacy. And also DICK IS NAKED.
Should you wish to watch the whole of this scene, and who could blame you, it's here starting at 5:27.
Pat and Dick also dig tunnels together. Often, delightfully, this involves them being naked or in close contact or both.
My favorite moment between them is one you'll have to take on trust, because it doesn't screencap well and it's impossible to see in the low-resolution YouTube clip. During an escape, a problem arises when Pat turns out not to have the right key for a door. He goes back to the hole where Dick and two others are waiting and explains the problem, all the while resting his hand on Dick's thigh (as you do). Dick covers Pat's hand with his own, squeezes it, and they hold hands for about ten seconds. I have no explanation for this peformance choice apart from "the actors clearly thoughts their characters were an item."
My head-canon, brutally short version: they're in love, though it takes them a long time to realize or acknowledge it. For each, it's their first serious relationship (Pat is inexperienced although older, Dick is highly experienced but didn't, until he met Pat, do relationships) and they find the emotions hard to cope with. But they stay in love, although they are separated by The Plot for several years. They meet again after the war and live together in well-deserved happiness ever after.
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halotolerant's beautiful story With the Wild Geese shaped a lot of my background assumptions about Pat and Dick's relationship, although the stories I'm planning to write about them will differ in some details. I recommend it highly.
Before I force myself to shut up about Dick Player, I should mention that because he is young and attractive, the show loves to present him in a state of undress.
(The Captcha when I was uploading this image read: "thank you." Yes, indeed!)
Dick is also the most-whumped character, by far. He tends to come back from escape attempts in a bedraggled and occasionally deathly ill state.
Yes, that is Pat looking worried in the top screencap. He should be worried; Dick has been wandering around penniless and freezing in the rain and caught pneumonia.
If you're thinking, "Colditz has all the slash tropes, doesn't it?" you're right. Lots more to come in the second installment, wherein there is Stuck In A Cold Cave Together and I Hate You So Much That I Can't Stop Thinking About You, among others. And many new characters to meet!
I have an immensely detailed head-canon for these characters, which
halotolerant and I have developed together through our rewatch and tons of discussion. I won't bore you with too much of it but occasionally some will be relevant. And for your viewing pleasure, I've included screencaps and some links to YouTube clips. The clips are of the crap visual quality that you'd expect from YouTube and sometimes the sound and picture are out of synch, but I recommend giving them a look to see how these people speak and relate to each other.Some very basic introductory information, to start with. The BBC program Colditz ran for two series, in 1972 and 1974. It tells the fictionalized story of a real POW camp, Oflag (officers' camp) IVC, located in Colditz Castle near Leipzig. Colditz was a "special camp" for officers who had a history of escape attempts or troublemaking of one kind or another, and after the war, due to ex-POWs memoirs, it became somewhat unfairly iconic of the POW experience. The show follows the camp and its inmates and staff from 1940 to the war's end, with stories focusing on successful and unsuccessful escapes as well as day-to-day life.
On to the characters, beginning in this installment with the two who have the most canonical justification as a pairing.
Pat Grant (played by Edward Hardwicke)
Pat Grant is based fairly closely on real-life Colditz escaper and memoirist Pat Reid, who was a consultant on the program. Perhaps for this reason, Pat isn't given a lot of backstory or obvious character development, since the writers and producers didn't want to include anything the rather touchy Reid might take as insulting. But Hardwicke does a great job infusing life into an underwritten character.
Pat is pragmatic (an engineer in civilian life) and good at planning. These skills lead him to become Escape Officer in Colditz. He vets plans and coordinates preparation for escapes, but due to his EO role is not himself eligible to escape. Initially Pat is somewhat intolerant of what he sees as weakness or giving up, but as time passes he grows more patient and more aware of the risks of escaping. He's also tremendously kind, very much a caretaker and almost a mother figure, the sort of person who, if you're just coming out of solitary confinement, will ensure that you get a tin of peaches as a treat. With a pretty blue ribbon tied around the tin.
(This scene can be viewed here and is well worth watching for the character interactions; Dick's response to the sight of the peaches is priceless, and so is Simon Carter's enthusiasm for eating them. The scene starts about ten seconds in. I'd recommend holding off on watching this until you're read the introductions to the other characters, though.)
Dick Player (played by Christopher Neame)
Lieutenant Richard Roxborough Player, RN, known to all as Dick (best name EVER, and I'm half convinced that it's deliberate) is a young officer from a privileged and unusual background. His father was a senior diplomat stationed in Germany; Dick spent much of his childhood in Germany, speaks fluent German, and has German friends. He's rich (casually referring to friends in St. Tropez with a yacht, or friends in England who are digging up the tennis courts to plant a garden for the war effort), strikingly good-looking, charming, friendly, self-confident without being arrogant, but more emotionally vulnerable than he likes to let on.
He's also, in my head-canon, gayer than a very gay thing. Okay, fine, almost all of them are gay in my head-canon, or at least bisexual. But Dick is the only character who I would argue is coded queer in canon. He's not married and never mentions a girlfriend, past or present, and shows no interest in a woman he meets during an escape attempt. He flirts with lots of men, though, right down to the guard who escorts him on a trip to the dentist. And in his first episode he has incredible subtext with an "old friend," Paul von Eissinger, who for his part might as well have GAY written on his forehead. The backstory here is that Dick was captured out of uniform, the Gestapo have accused him of being a spy, and he's said that Paul (who is a diplomat and a titled aristocrat, Graf Eissinger, and hence an influential personage) can vouch for his identity. You can watch their meeting here starting at 9:28 and continuing here. I recommend it not just for the subtext but for the politics, as Paul tries to recruit Dick into a scheme to overthrow Hitler at the cost of a British surrender. (Incidentally, the sores on Dick's lips in these scenes are due to salt water and cold--his submarine was torpedoed and he was adrift for at least 24 hours. They go away.)
In Colditz, Dick and Pat Grant become close and highly slashable friends. One of the odd delights of the show is watching their friendship; it's almost unstated and easy to miss on first viewing when you're paying attention to the plot, but very clear if you focus on gestures, blocking, and body language. They're together onscreen a lot. They talk together and share, in an understated way, their worries.
After a couple of episodes they "move in together," by starting to share a bunk where previously they'd been in separate ones. They share cigarettes (passing a single cigarette back and forth) and are the only two characters who do so. My favorite cigarette-sharing clip, in part because it also features Dick using his Sexy Voice to tell Pat about an erotic dream he's had, is tragically not online, but another one is here at 0:30; this nice little moment shows their unspoken rapport.
They even wash up together, sharing soap and a towel with accustomed intimacy. And also DICK IS NAKED.
Should you wish to watch the whole of this scene, and who could blame you, it's here starting at 5:27.
Pat and Dick also dig tunnels together. Often, delightfully, this involves them being naked or in close contact or both.
My favorite moment between them is one you'll have to take on trust, because it doesn't screencap well and it's impossible to see in the low-resolution YouTube clip. During an escape, a problem arises when Pat turns out not to have the right key for a door. He goes back to the hole where Dick and two others are waiting and explains the problem, all the while resting his hand on Dick's thigh (as you do). Dick covers Pat's hand with his own, squeezes it, and they hold hands for about ten seconds. I have no explanation for this peformance choice apart from "the actors clearly thoughts their characters were an item."
My head-canon, brutally short version: they're in love, though it takes them a long time to realize or acknowledge it. For each, it's their first serious relationship (Pat is inexperienced although older, Dick is highly experienced but didn't, until he met Pat, do relationships) and they find the emotions hard to cope with. But they stay in love, although they are separated by The Plot for several years. They meet again after the war and live together in well-deserved happiness ever after.
halotolerant's beautiful story With the Wild Geese shaped a lot of my background assumptions about Pat and Dick's relationship, although the stories I'm planning to write about them will differ in some details. I recommend it highly.Before I force myself to shut up about Dick Player, I should mention that because he is young and attractive, the show loves to present him in a state of undress.
(The Captcha when I was uploading this image read: "thank you." Yes, indeed!)
Dick is also the most-whumped character, by far. He tends to come back from escape attempts in a bedraggled and occasionally deathly ill state.
Yes, that is Pat looking worried in the top screencap. He should be worried; Dick has been wandering around penniless and freezing in the rain and caught pneumonia.
If you're thinking, "Colditz has all the slash tropes, doesn't it?" you're right. Lots more to come in the second installment, wherein there is Stuck In A Cold Cave Together and I Hate You So Much That I Can't Stop Thinking About You, among others. And many new characters to meet!
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