Series One Lisa Colbert runs Lifeline, a
Brussels-based evasion organisation. It helps Allied aircrew to evade capture and return to Britain via neutral
Switzerland or
Spain. She is helped by Albert Foiret, proprietor of the
Cafe Candide, his mistress Monique Duchamps, and waitress Natalie Chantrens. Their operations are placed under strain when the fervent Nazi,
Gestapo Sturmbannführer Ludwig Kessler is assigned to work with
Luftwaffe Major Erwin Brandt and close down the evasion line. Flight Lieutenant John Curtis, a former evader, is sent back by London as a
Special Operations Executive liaison officer to coordinate its activity. At first he is greeted with hostility and suspicion; there is also romantic tension between him and Lisa. The series highlights the risks that the main characters take to rescue the young airmen whilst under German occupation, protecting their safe houses, and evading investigation. By the end of this series, Kessler and Brandt are closing in on Curtis as their investigation into a murder in France has led them to the name 'Monsieur Maurice', which is Curtis's pseudonym. Brandt and Kessler pay their first visit to the Candide to locate him. Kessler's interest in Curtis poses a significant threat to Lifeline and so it is agreed that Curtis will return to England. Kessler orders a troop encirclement of Brussels, but Curtis manages to escape to Switzerland by posing as bus driver for a local
Hitler Youth group that is travelling out of the city on a day trip. Albert is having an affair with barmaid Monique Duchamps, while his wife Andrée is bedridden, following an accident two years prior (an out-of-control lorry had ploughed into Albert's car, with Andrée as a passenger). In the final episode Andrée finds out by spotting Monique going into Albert's bedroom. She tries to speak to Albert and gets into her wheelchair for the first time, but falls down the stairs and breaks her neck, dying instantly. Other characters introduced are: • Gaston Colbert, Lisa's uncle and bank manager, who has been helping Lifeline, and his wife Louise. A batch of forged banknotes is traced to Gaston, and Kessler interrogates him in the belief he will lead to the people running the evasion line. Lisa later learns that Gaston has been shot dead trying to escape from German HQ. • Alain Muny, Lifeline's wireless operator, who maintains contact with London and supplies the Candide with food from his farm. • Dr Pascal Keldermans, who helps with medical treatment for the airmen and gives Lisa cover by employing her as a nurse at his surgery.
Series Two Albert has sold the Cafe Candide and owns an upper-class
black-market restaurant, called the
Restaurant Candide, which is prominently located in the
Grand-Place. This venture is 60% clandestinely owned and financed by London, so as to enable the members of Lifeline to cater for senior German officers, allowing them to overhear indiscretions and to provide better cover for their activities. Albert takes over running Lifeline when Lisa is killed (in the first episode) by Allied bombing, whilst travelling in
occupied France. The German officers frequent the new establishment regularly, allowing the principal characters to interact and increasing the dramatic tension. To capitalise on actress Angela Richards's singing talent, Monique performs regularly for the diners, and this becomes a feature of the series. These scenes transform the character of Monique from a dowdy waitress to a sultry chanteuse, and contrast with their stressful undercover activities. Secondary storylines include Kessler's developing romance with lonely Belgian 'society woman' Madeleine Duclos, whom he meets while dining alone at Le Candide, and Brandt being asked to join a
conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. Although he declines, he comes to be seen as guilty by association. This, and the death of his family in a British air raid on
Berlin, results in his suicide to avoid a
court-martial, on the same day as the
Normandy landings. The series also introduces a new character, Max Brocard who works at the Candide as a pianist in order to replace Gaston as Lifeline’s forger. Unknown to everyone else, Max is part of the Belgian Communist Resistance and is plotting to take over Lifeline, in order to use its money and political influence from London to establish a Communist takeover of Belgium at the end of the war. At the same time Kessler's mistress Madeleine bribes Staff Sergeant Dexter to allow her lover's freedom and the couple escape together. For the members of the evasion line, their happiness is tinged with sadness as they all say goodbye to a tearful Monique, who says her final goodbyes to the Candide and to Albert before starting a new life with her husband.
Unbroadcast episode The final episode in the series, "
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?", was set in 1969 and was never broadcast. It looked at how the characters had fared after the war. The reasons for its non-broadcast are unknown. It is possible it was because of the episode's
anti-Communist message. The main themes of the episode were subsequently incorporated into a sequel,
Kessler, a series which was transmitted in 1981 and explored Kessler's fate. ==Production==