This Yorkshire TV made-for-telly movie is written by one of the most prolific Brit-com writers of all, David Nobbs. Maybe that's why it all seems to me like a 30-minute episode of a show that didn't know when to stop.
There are definitely funny moments here, and Nobbs moves the plot along by putting mammoth twists in the plot about every 20 minutes. But honestly, an hour would have been plenty to put across this material. 100 minutes is excruciating.
It's all played out, as someone else has mentioned, like Animal Farm meets Great Escape, with a few dashes of Hogan's Heroes for good measure.
Stephen Fry and Geoffrey Palmer are quite good, as are some of the supporting cast. Fry is more or less reprising his character from Blackadder IV; the pompous officer who won't listen to anyone else. But be warned, this plot is thinned out almost as badly as soup in the Stalag.
There are definitely funny moments here, and Nobbs moves the plot along by putting mammoth twists in the plot about every 20 minutes. But honestly, an hour would have been plenty to put across this material. 100 minutes is excruciating.
It's all played out, as someone else has mentioned, like Animal Farm meets Great Escape, with a few dashes of Hogan's Heroes for good measure.
Stephen Fry and Geoffrey Palmer are quite good, as are some of the supporting cast. Fry is more or less reprising his character from Blackadder IV; the pompous officer who won't listen to anyone else. But be warned, this plot is thinned out almost as badly as soup in the Stalag.