Tenko (TV series)

infobox television
show_name = Tenko


caption = This is the main title caption that was seen throughout the series.
format = Drama
runtime = 1 Hour (including ads)
creator = Lavinia Warner
starring = Ann Bell
Stephanie Cole
Stephanie Beacham
Louise Jameson
Patricia Lawrence
Veronica Roberts
Emily Bolton
Elizabeth Chambers
Claire Oberman
Jean Anderson
Burt Kwouk
Nicolas Corry
country = UK
network = BBC
first_aired = 1981
last_aired = 1985
num_episodes = 31
imdb_id = 0081944

"Tenko" is a television drama, co-produced by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). A total of thirty episodes was produced between 1981 and 1984, followed by a one-off special (which was twice the length of the other episodes), "Tenko Reunion", in 1985.

The series dealt with the experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women who were captured after the fall of Singapore in February 1942, after the Japanese invasion, and interned in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on a Japanese-occupied island between Singapore and Australia.

"Tenko" was created by Lavinia Warner after she had conducted research into the internment of nursing corps officer Margot Turner (1910–1993) for an edition of "This Is Your Life" and was convinced of the dramatic potential of the stories of women prisoners of the Japanese. [Warner and Sandilands Women Beyond the Wire: A Story of Prisoners of the Japanese 1942-45 1982 dustjacket] Aside from the first two episodes, set in Singapore, which were written by Paul Wheeler, the series was written by Jill Hyem and Anne Valery.

Due to high production costs only the first two episodes of the first series were filmed on location in Singapore. The majority of the series, set in the camp, was filmed in a specially constructed set in Dorset.

The programme is currently being shown in the UK on UKTV History at 2pm every weekday.

Major characters

"See : Tenko Characters"

The major characters who featured in all three series and the reunion telemovie were:
*Marion Jefferson (Ann Bell)—the wife of an army colonel.
*Beatrice Mason (Stephanie Cole)—a stern, officious doctor.
*Kate Norris (Claire Oberman)—a brash Australian nurse.
*Domenica Van Meyer (Elizabeth Chambers)—a vain, selfish Dutch woman.
*Christina Campbell (Emily Bolton)—a mixed-race (Chinese/Scottish) young woman.
*Dorothy Bennett (Veronica Roberts)—a young working-class housewife.
*Sister Ulrica (Patricia Lawrence)—a formidable Dutch nun.

First series

The first series establishes the pre-war lives of many of the characters before chronicling the fall of Singapore, and the evacuation of British nationals from the city. The first two episodes set in Singapore focus on the characters Marion Jefferson, Vicky Armstrong, Rose Millar, Doctor Beatrice Mason, nurse Kate Norris, Nurse Nellie Keane, Christina Campbell and Sister Ulrica. Due to the severity of attacks by the Japanese on Singapore many women and men are evacuated aboard a ship to sail for Australia, however the ship is torpedoed and sinks in the Java sea.

Vicky Armstrong, Marion's best friend drowns after the ship sinks, however all of the other major characters survive and gather on a beach where they are subsequently captured by Japanese soldiers and separated from the male prisoners. The women are marched through the jungle to a camp where they meet other women who have also been captured by the Japanese which include tarty Cockney Blanche Simmons (Louise Jameson), newlywed Sally Markham (Joanna Hole), mother and daughter Judith (Ann Queensberry) and Debbie Bowen (Karin Foley) and Sylvia Ashburton (Renée Asherson), a haughty general's wife.

All of the women are interned under Commandant Yamauchi (Burt Kwouk), a deeply traditional Japanese soldier, who regards the prisoners as "fourth-class women". His sadistic deputy, Lieutenant Sato (Eiji Kusuhara) is dubbed "Satan" by the inmates. Conditions in the camp are harsh; no clean water, and little more than rice and water for the inmates to eat and drink. A group of Dutch prisoners are also interned into the camp which include Sister Ulrica and Mrs.Van Meyer.

The first series chronicles the women's first year in captivity, ending during Christmas 1942, focusing on their efforts to adjust to being interned and to their new Dutch companions in the camp. Early on in the series Sally Markham learns she is pregnant but later gives birth to a still born baby. She then becomes increasingly reliant on Nellie Keane and Nellie finds herself falling in love with Sally. However this is not reciprocated by Sally who sees Nellie as just a friend.

Dorothy Bennett has been interned with her baby daughter, Violet, after having seen her husband, Dennis, shot on the beach. Shortly afterwards Violet dies and Dorothy turns to prostitution, selling herself to the guards for food and cigarettes and turning away from the other prisoners.

When red cross parcels are delivered to the camp but not distributed, Blanche, Rose and Dorothy all sneak to the guards hut to check the contents of the parcels but are caught by the guards. The guards attempt to rape the prisoners but Dorothy lies to the commandant and say it was the women's fault. As such Blanche and Rose spend some time in the punishment hut and are tied to the stakes out in the sun with no food or water, Dorothy escapes the punishment as Yamauchi assumes she is the one telling the truth and Blanche and Rose are lying about the attempted rapes. After Dorothy admits she was lying to the commandant Blanche takes revenge by attacking her and the women learn not to trust Dorothy.

Judith Bowen contracts malaria and although she survives the first bout after Blanche Simmons has stolen quinnine from the red cross parcels she later dies when it returns for a second time. After this Blanche forges an escape plan telling only Rose, with whom she has become good friends with, however Debbie learns of the escape and tells Blanche she must take her with her or she will inform the commandant. Rose and Marion learn that Debbie has escaped with Blanche and tell the commandant as Rose fears Blanche will never make it with Debbie and Marion had been asked by Judith to look after her. They are both recaptured and staked for a period of time.

Christina Campbell is initially very scared when brought to the camp, having just buried her mother in Singapore and faces racism from Sylvia Ashburton at the beginning of the series. She forges a close friendship with Rose Millar and eventually begins working for commandant Yamauchi as an interpreter and personal assistant.

At the end of the series the internees are informed they must move to another camp, Mrs.Van Meyer has contracted Beri Beri, Beatrice Mason is finding it hard to cope with no medical supplies and a list of all male prisoners alive on the island is given to the women. Sally's husband, Peter, is not on the list acknowledging that he is dead. The series ends with the women on yet another long march into the jungle.

econd series

As the second series opens, the prisoners have been split into two groups and are on the long trek to a new camp. The first episode deals with the long march through the jungle, the realisation that after being split into two groups, the other group (including Blanche, Nellie & Sylvia) have been sent to a different camp. Sally Markham is seriously depressed after learning that her husband, Peter, may be dead, Mrs.Van Meyer has recovered from Beri-Beri and Debbie Bowen dies from a spider bite along the journey. A new prisoner, Joss Holbrook, is introduced whom they meet whilst on the way to the new camp.

Once at the new camp the prisoners find the way the camp is run very different to that of the first. It is effectively run by Miss Hasan (Josephine Welcome), the commandant's interpreter, who has installed her own leader, Verna Johnson (Rosemary Martin), a "collaborator" who ensures she is excused manual labour and is in control of the camp's food supplies. Christina Campbell is removed from the camp to work as an official interpreter elsewhere, which sends Sally Markham further into depression and eventually commits suicide by slashing her wrists with a mirror she has purchased from Verna Johnson.

The women are blamed for Sally's suicide and are given less rations and more work as a result. Early on in arriving at the new camp, Dorothy Bennett finds herself pregnant by one of the guards and, organised by Verna Johnson, Beatrice Mason performs an abortion. Sister Ulrica confesses to the visiting priest of knowing about such an act and is sent to a nunnery.

Later in the series, viewers learn that Yamouchi is the new district commander and he removes the commandant of the camp and installs Captain Sato as the new commandant. Blanche Simmons is shifted to the new camp after Marion requests more information on their old friends from Yamouchi and announces that Sylvia Ashburton has died of Cholera. Christina Campbell is also reunited with her friends bringing with her news of the mens camp and that both Rose's Bernard and Kate's Tom are both alive, news which she has gained from one of the natives.

By acting as a "go-between", Christina passes notes between Rose and Bernard via the native and eventually they arrange to meet. Aided with Blanche, Rose meets Bernard outside of the camp. However, due to rations being cut even further and desperate for food for her young son, Bobby, Lillian Cartland has learned of the meeting and informs Miss.Hasan in exchange for food. The guards are alerted and find Rose and Bernard, shooting them both. Bernard is killed instantly but Rose survives, after a life saving operation by Beatrice Mason and Kate Norris, where they remove a bullet. This leaves Rose paralysed from the waist down, as her condition worsens later on in the series Blanche asks Beatrice to suffocate her in order to end her suffering which Beatrice refuses to do. However the next day Beatrice announces that Rose died peacefully in her sleep, viewers never knowing whether beatrice did end Rose's life or not.

Initially everyone blames Christina, thinking she informed Miss.Hasan of the meeting between Rose and Bernard. However, Marion finds out that her old friend, Lillian, effectively sold Rose for food and is unable to keep this secret. News of the deception spreads around the camp and for what it has caused for Rose this riles the internees, certainly Blanche and Dorothy. They attack Lillian and hack off her hair. Fearful of other repercussions, Yamouchi and Miss Hasan Send Lillian and her son Bobby to another camp where they are not known.

In addition to the main cast new additions to the cast included tough-as-boots aristocrat Jocelyn "Joss" Holbrook (Jean Anderson), Marion's old friend Lillian Cartland (Philippa Urquhart), orphaned Daisy Robertson (Anna Lindup) and Dr. Natalie Trier (Carolle Rousseau).

The second series ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, the women learn that Verna Johnson has been retaining red cross parcels and selling the contents to the rest of the prisoners. They set about exposing her to Yamouchi but before they can the camp receives a direct hit during an Allied bombing raid on the local Japanese headquarters, seriously injuring many of the prisoners including Daisy whose arm is in threads and killing both Miss Hasan and Shinya.

Third series

The third series opens with the liberation of the prisoners-of-war, amidst the end of the war and the return of Singapore to British control. All of the returning POW's make a difficult adjustment to civilian life. The first episode starts with a shot of the graveyard in the new camp, displaying the grave markers for Verna Johnson, Daisy Robertson and Blanche Simmons.

Dorothy and Maggie Thorpe (Elizabeth Mickery) befriend local businessman Jake Haulter (Damien Thomas), Joss is re-acquainted with an old friend, Stephen Wentworth (Preston Lockwood) and Marion's marriage to Clifford (Jonathan Newth)—now a brigadier—suffers because of his expectation she return to life as a docile army wife.

The third series also follows Clifford's work in bringing war crimes charges against the Japanese, including a personal vendetta to indict Yamauchi for his role in imprisoning Marion and the others. Because of her unique relationship with Yamauchi—Marion and the commandant came to a grudging respect for one another through the turbulent events of the first two episodes—Marion (as well as Christina and Ulrica) refuses to testify against Yamauchi, further estranging Clifford.

Analysis

The series was praised for its bold storytelling, and outstanding performances from its leads. Despite its comparatively modest production values, it has been favourably compared to big-budget versions of what is essentially the same story, such as the Bruce Beresford film "Paradise Road".

"Tenko" can also be regarded as an interesting fusion of historical drama and soap opera, with its focus on the more personal aspects of living in the camp and its handling of issues such as rape, stillbirth, lesbianism, suicide, abortion and euthanasia within the context of 1940's morality.

"Tenko Reunion"

In 1985, a two-hour special, "Tenko Reunion", was produced. It picked up a story thread from the final episode of the series, in which the surviving prisoners of war, on the eve of their repatriation from Singapore, had made a promise to reunite five years later, at Raffles Hotel—a fixture in their pre-war lives, which also served as a repatriation centre during the liberation of Singapore.

"Tenko Reunion" featured Marion Jefferson (Ann Bell) now divorced from Clifford; Dr Beatrice Mason (Stephanie Cole) and Christina Campbell (Emily Bolton) now working in a community centre in Singapore, Domenica Forster-Brown (Elizabeth Chambers), the now happily re-married Mrs Van Meyer, nurse and now doctor-in-training Kate Norris (Clare Oberman), young Alice Courtenay (Cindy Shelley) and working class girls Dorothy Bennett (Veronica Roberts) and Maggie Carter (Elizabeth Mickery), now a successful businesswoman and married mother of two, respectively.

The reunion examined how each of their lives had changed, and how life in Singapore was also changing. In a dramatic twist, the women are held at gunpoint at the plantation on the estate of Domenica Forster-Brown—after one among them passes information that there is a cache of guns on the estate to a band of local communist rebels.

It featured Domenica's new husband Teddy Forster-Brown (Robert Lang), Christina Campbell's boyfriend, Lau Peng (Swee Hoe Lim) and a young doctor who catches Kate Norris's eye, Duncan Fraser (Christian Rodska).

The major twist of the "Tenko Reunion" was the revelation that it was one of the women who had betrayed them to the communist rebels. The spy was revealed to be Christina Campbell, whose difficulty adjusting after life in the camps had been developed in detail in the third series.

Christina's experience with racism—from Sylvia Ashburton's "Raj"-style disdain for her in the first series, to the difficulties of being caught between the British establishment in Singapore, and her Chinese appearance, had stoked the fires of rebellion in her. She secretly worked for the rebels, hoping to trigger independence for Singapore on their terms.

The series concluded at a subsequent reunion, this one at Christmas, at Marion's home in London, attended by Dominica, Alice, Jake, Stephen, Bea, Marion, Maggie, and Dorothy, with brief glimpses of Kate, Ulrica, and Duncan serving Christmas dinner to the poor at the community centre in Singapore, and Christina—alone and unrepentant—in her prison cell.

DVD release

The complete series of "Tenko" is available on DVD (Region 2, UK) through Acorn Media. For Australia, Series 1 (in two parts) in 2006, Series 2 will be released in March 2008 and Series 3 later.

Notes

External links

* [http://users.bestweb.net/~foosie/tenkocst.htm Complete cast list and episode guide]
* [http://www.warnersisterstv.co.uk/tenko.htm Lavinia Warner's page on Tenko]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/titles/tenko.shtml Real Player version of the opening titles, at the BBC Cult homepage]
* [http://www.britishdrama.org.uk/tenko.html A brief essay on the series, and an episode guide]
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/504487/index.html British Film Institute Screen Online]