Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Season 2 & 3 of this late 70's BBC series weren't released in the US ... and that should have been my big hint! Ignoring the writing on the wall I popped in disk 1 in and gave it a whirl. This experiment lasted 1.5 episodes. Really when you think about it most late 70's BBC shows were really bad and I remember having the same revulsion when I watched "Enemy At The Door" about 20 years ago.Stagey and slow ... lots of film noir camera shots but no FN music ... bad acting ... and all those unrelenting close ups of people's faces ... it made me feel claustrophobic.This is not good TV and that is too bad as it is an excellent idea for a series.BTW: To show IMDb what I think of their disabling their message boards, I am vowing to stop using Amazon's pay per view service! Google Play, VUDU and Netflix are excellent alternatives ... and are often cheaper. Thanks IMDb/Amazon ... way to treat your dedicated customers who want to share their passion for films and history!

To say that Secret Army is not your average WW2 show is an understatement . Everything from the locations to the characters remains original even by today's standards . It truly is an amazing story-driven show that one shouldn't watch if it is action that you are looking for .It takes on themes that aren't pictured very often in movies and show , like the escape lines in the first place , most of the time people will prefer to focus on active resistance fighters rather than more passive movements . It also has a much more realistic if not dark and gritty approach than most others War shows and hardly ever " glorifies " the actions of the protagonists . It is often hard to define who the protagonists really are in the show due to what the people of Lifeline often have to do to protect themselves or the pilots they are trying to send back to England . Added to the general antipathetic behaviour of some of the main characters the likable characters appear to be very few , whilst the despicable characters are many and on both sides .They also have a very interesting way of depicting the German side with a strong duality between the honourable and sympathetic Luftwaffe Officer for whom you might find yourself rooting for before you know it , and the ruthless , sadistic Officer of the SS which is so brilliantly portrayed that he might just be one of the most evil characters you've seen on TV .The great acting from the whole cast only contributes to further immerse you in the dreadful atmosphere of the life under the Occupation , and ties in pretty well with real historical events often depicted in the show . And needless to say that as someone who knows Brussels and its surroundings , it was even more appealing since all the streets and locations showed and mentioned throughout the 3 seasons are real and give you a nice idea of how Brussels looked 30 years ago . They even made an extra effort to have background chatters recorded in French and Dutch to add to the authenticity of the setting .

Yes indeed. "Secret army", has to be my favourite series from the 70-ies. A classic in his own right. Very dramatic, very real! Even at this moment it's running again on Belgian TV, and every time it's a joy to watch! I got to mention, especially Kessler, played by Clifford rose, a great performance, even today! I wonder what happened to most of the actors, cause haven't heard or seen much about them after the series. One thing I did find very sorry is, why they had to make a comic version of it! Because the series is telling us of people who risked their lives to save that of others, when Europe, (Belgium), was going trough his most dark period in history! Peter.

I have recently seen this series about WW2 escape lines again. It hardly dates at all. The stories are hard hitting,realistic as are the characters. I hope all these will become available on DVD soon.