Author Archives: Andy Priestner

First broadcast: Thursday 23 December 1981 December 1942. It is monsoon season and having been in the camp for ten months. There is heated debate over how to celebrate Christmas until Mrs Van Meyer provides a compromise solution. Beatrice has … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 17 December 1981 Blanche and Debbie are interrogated but they claim that no-one helped them to escape. They are tied to poles in the compound and many of the prisoners’ possessions are burned as punishment. The women … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 10 December 1981 August 1942. One of the boys turns thirteen and is transferred to the men’s camp. His mother is grief-stricken and disobeys Sato’s orders to move away from the main gate, but her fellow prisoners … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 03 December 1981 June 1942. The women play rounders in order to raise their spirits. Sally is due to give birth in less than two months and Yamauchi is keen that the baby is born healthy for … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 26 November 1981 Marion is interrogated for hours by the Kempei Tei. Judith is still very ill with malaria. Eventually, a shaken Marion is released and she reveals that the Allies have retreated as far as India. … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 19 November 1981 Violet is buried in the compound. A month later Yamauchi reports the latest successes of the Nipponese forces. Beatrice is concerned that more women are falling ill every day. Marion explains that she has … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 12 November 1981 February 1942. The Dutch have their first tenko and the Japanese select Sylvia to teach them how to bow. Marion welcomes Sister Ulrica to the camp. Dorothy is concerned about Violet, but Beatrice insists … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 05 November 1981 Kampong Getah, February 1942. The exhausted women arrive at a camp in a jungle clearing in which they are to be imprisoned. The survivors who found each other on the beach have been joined … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 29 October 1981 10 December 1941. Clifford and Marion offer their services to Dr Mason at the hospital. Clifford learns that several key British vessels, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, have been sunk by the … Continue reading →

First broadcast: Thursday 22 October 1981 5 December 1941. British Colonel’s wife Marion Jefferson is convinced that her existence in Singapore – an endless round of shopping and dinner dances – is a pointless one. She confides in her long-term … Continue reading →