Tenko

First broadcast: Thursday 23 December 1982

3 September 1943. Conditions in the camp have deteriorated and the numbers of sick are increasing all the time. Joss and Blanche reluctantly visit the hospital where Beatrice is now very much in control despite her failing eyesight. An irate Miss Hasan demands that Verna give her the money she owes her. Marion’s diary is taken during a search and destroyed. Marion is so incensed by this that she agrees to help Joss with her latest sabotage scheme. When Yamauchi collapses at Headquarters and is taken away, Christina briefly spies a letter about Red Cross parcels. Marion instructs Christina to try to take a longer look at the letter. Most of the women are overjoyed when they learn from the native resistance that the Allies have landed in New Guinea. Verna has a sale of her goods in order to raise funds to pay Miss Hasan, and Blanche purchases a red dress she has had her eye on. Christina discovers that twelve Red Cross parcels were stamped out to their camp on the 12April. Verna explains to Marion that the parcels were kept back by Miss Hasan and Captain Sato as they did not feel they deserved them due to Rose’s escape and they were sent to a convent instead. Despite her new dress, Blanche is rejected by Kasaki, so she decides to hold a party and exchanges the dress for some sake for her guests. As Shinya is leaving to go to the front, Dorothy forgives him for shooting Rose. He tells her that it is Verna who orders the searches in the camp and Dorothy relays this to the women at Blanche’s party. She and Blanche are keen to exact revenge. Marion, who has figured out that the parcels arrived in camp before Rose escaped, asks that they bring Verna back to their room. Marion confronts Verna about the searches and the missing Red Cross parcels and she is forced to admit her guilt. However she avoids being lynched by explaining that Miss Hasan made her do it and had threatened her with being sent to the punishment camp. Marion instructs Christina to tell Yamauchi and to try to get him to come to the camp to investigate. The next morning the camp is bombed by an Allied plane. Shinya and Miss Hasan are killed outright and the women take the opportunity to liberate the Red Cross parcels from Verna’s storeroom. Yamauchi arrives and is furious at what he sees. He tells them they are defeated women, but Marion defiantly responds that they won’t be for long.

First broadcast: Thursday 16 December 1982

12 May 1943. Bobby has been ostracised by the other children and Lillian is attacked by Blanche and Dorothy because of her betrayal of Rose. In the hospital, Rose is finding her limited existence unbearable. Blanche tries to make it up to Christina by inviting her to a country dancing event, but she refuses. Lillian’s further mistreatment leads Marion to petition Verna for hers and Bobby’s transfer to another camp, but she has already suggested this to Miss Hasan. Dorothy is sickened when she learns that it was Shinya who shot Rose. Yamauchi informs Marion that Lillian and Bobby will be transferred and that Bernard is dead. When Marion tells Rose, she appears to take the news in her stride, but is in fact heartbroken and that night she asks Beatrice to finish her off. Before morning tenko, Marion is summoned by Bobby to say goodbye to Lillian. Mrs Van Meyer refuses to cut Rose’s hair short. When Blanche, who has been avoiding visiting Rose, overhears this, she decides to go to the hospital to provide this service. After failing to convince Rose of a life they could have together back in England, Blanche cuts her hair. Kate reports that Rose’s urine is infected and discovers that Beatrice has always known that Rose was going to die under these conditions.  Rose is moved back into the side ward and her condition continues to deteriorate. A native makes contact with Joss and Marion, and Kate receives a note from Tom. Blanche petitions Beatrice to put Rose out of her misery. Rose refuses to eat or drink, but when Miss Hasan hears of this from Verna, Sato stands over her threatening that no-one else will eat until she does, so she complies. Blanche once again asks Beatrice to put an end to Rose’s life. Joss learns from Christina that her friend Monica is dead. After Rose tells Beatrice that the next day is her thirtieth birthday and that she hopes it will never come, the doctor smothers her. The next morning Beatrice tells the others that Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

First broadcast: Thursday 9 December 1982

30 April 1943. As a seriously injured Rose is brought back to the camp, Sato is determined to discover who helped her arrange the jungle rendezvous. Beatrice and Kate must see to the unconscious Rose’s wounds alone as Dr Trier has already been repatriated. During a makeshift operation, Kate removes a bullet from Rose’s back. Almost a week later Rose has come through her delirium recovers consciousness and is clear-headed, but is paralysed from the waist down. Shinya informs Dorothy that Rose was betrayed by one of her fellow prisoners. Blanche is convinced that Christina is getting extra rations from somewhere and suspects that it was she who betrayed Rose. Lillian is becoming ever more unreasonable, having now taken Bobby out of school and refusing to let him play with his friends. Yamauchi and Sato question Rose, but she tells them that she arranged the meeting alone. Blanche passes on her suspicions about Christina to Marion. Despite Blanche’s protestations, Marion insists that the case be examined by the discipline committee. Verna uses Daisy to spread the rumour that it was Christina betrayed Rose. The committee, which now includes Beatrice, meets. Christina’s defence is based upon her British character and the case against her is not proved due to lack of evidence. Kate asks Rose about Tom and learns that he is still alive. Rose is allowed visitors and her first is Blanche, but due to the circumstances, the meeting ends in tears. Blanche confides in Joss that she has neither hope nor anger left. Christina is receiving her extra rations from the unwell Yamauchi. Joss discovers that Verna has been feeding fish to her cat and alerts Marion. Marion is furious and agrees to join forces with Joss in her acts of sabotage. During such an operation, Joss is astonished when she comes across Lillian feeding Bobby a jar of yeast extract. Marion arrives on the scene and is dumbfounded when Lillian reveals that she ‘sold’ Rose in order to buy food for Bobby.

First broadcast: Thursday 02 December 1982

22 April 1943. Rose receives a note from Bernard via Christina, however she has no message for Kate from Tom. Dr Trier is trying to bring her treatise up to date before she is repatriated and asks Beatrice if she will take a duplicate copy for safekeeping. Joss and Blanche plan several acts of sabotage for the night of the Emperor’s birthday. Bernard wants to meet Rose in the jungle on the same night. Joss encourages Blanche to make it up with Rose. Marion is dismayed when, without consultation, Dominica is chosen to replace an ever more anxious Lillian on the discipline committee. Marion manages to secure agreement that its members will vote on such matters in future. When Rose finds out about the sabotage plans, she tells Blanche about her rendezvous with Bernard. Yamauchi proudly provides the prisoners with meat for their supper on the occasion of the Emperor’s birthday. However, to the women’s disgust, the meat is off. While Rose prepares for her rendezvous, Blanche asks if she would like her to accompany her and she readily agrees. Beatrice is having a crisis of confidence due to Trier’s impending departure. While the guards begin to enjoy the birthday festivities, Rose and Blanche leave the camp. Joss lets slip to Kate about Bernard. Kate fears that Tom may be unwell as he hasn’t replied to her notes. Rose is reunited with Bernard. Trier finds out that her request to have her repatriation cancelled has been denied. She tells Beatrice that her brother is a communist and that she therefore dreads her return to Vichy France. Rose and Bernard share their news. Blanche is helped back into the camp by Marion who guesses her nocturnal activity has to do with Rose. Rose and Bernard finally share their true feelings for each other. The guards are alerted to the fact that Rose has escaped. In the jungle, Shinya finds the terrified Rose and Bernard. Back in the camp, the women are horrified to hear two shots ring out.

First broadcast: Thursday 26 November 1982

31 March 1943. While Joss is still intent on sabotage and Rose is holding out for news of Bernard, Lillian is ever more desperately hoping for repatriation for herself and Bobby. Marion is denied an audience with Yamauchi, who she wants to ask about Lillian and the fate of their friends from the old camp. However, when Yamauchi visits the camp, Joss intervenes and Marion manages to secure some time alone with him. Miss Hasan and Verna are furious with Marion and she and her fellow hut-mates have to go without meals as a result. However, the next day it turns out that Marion’s talk with Yamauchi has paid off, as the women are reunited with both Christina and Blanche. Blanche informs Beatrice that Sylvia is dead but that Nellie is still alive. When Rose tells her that Debbie has died, Blanche can’t bring herself to forgive her for informing on them in the first camp. Blanche is stunned by Verna’s manner when she meets her for the first time. Lillian loses control when she finds that Bobby has given away half the egg she has bought for him. Blanche is unable to understand why the women take part in a concert especially as it is for the benefit of Miss Hasan. Dorothy tells Blanche about her abortion and how she has given up prostitution. Rose is distraught due to Blanche’s treatment of her and tells Beatrice that Blanche is the closest thing she’s ever had to a friend. Beatrice assumes that Blanche told a kind lie about Nellie’s survival. Christina, who now works with Yamauchi every day at Headquarters, is given the repatriation list to take back to the camp. Lillian is devastated when she discovers that she and Bobby are not on the list. One of the women who is going to be repatriated is Dr Trier which means Beatrice will be in charge again. A disenchanted Blanche agrees to join forces with Joss. Christina tells an overjoyed Rose that she has discovered that Bernard and Tom are alive.

First broadcast: Thursday 19 November 1982

21 January 1943. Beatrice tells Kate about Dorothy’s pregnancy. Kate is disgusted when Beatrice admits that under proper medical conditions she would help Dorothy to have an abortion. Beatrice works out that Dorothy must be three months pregnant and tells her that Trier will not perform an abortion. As Daisy is down with dysentery, Mrs Van Meyer becomes Verna’s maid. Ulrica pleads with Dorothy not to go ahead with her plans, but she threatens to kill herself if no-one will help her. Trier tells Verna about the strange behaviour of Kate and her friends and that it has something to do with Dorothy. Verna rounds on Mrs Van Meyer, correctly guessing that Dorothy is carrying. Verna tells Dorothy that she knows her secret, before negotiating with a Chinese woman called May to carry out the abortion. Miss Hasan reluctantly provides the money required and it is agreed that the procedure will take place the following day while Lt Nakamura is away. Beatrice and May brief Dorothy. May’s medication begins to take effect just as Miss Hasan learns that the new district commander – who is none other than Yamauchi – is about to arrive. Miss Hasan orders that all of Dorothy’s friends be sent to the factory. Miss Hasan gives Yamauchi a guided tour of the camp and insults his leadership by describing the new intake – from his old camp – as undisciplined. When Yamauchi demands to inspect the storeroom where the abortion is taking place, Miss Hasan has to pretend that she has lost the key. She receives a further dressing down when he discovers that Sally has committed suicide. He tells her that Sato will replace Nakamura. The abortion is only just over when the bell rings for tenko and Dorothy forces herself to attend to prevent Beatrice being punished. She collapses and is taken to the camp hospital. Beatrice is furious when Trier still fails to see what Dorothy has been through. Beatrice learns more about May’s life. Despite appearing to have lost the will to live, Dorothy pulls through. Ulrica makes a second confession to the visiting priest and subsequently leaves the camp for a convent in order to rededicate her faith.

First broadcast: Thursday 12 November 1982

15 January 1943. Sally is given a Christian burial at which Sister Ulrica presides. Beatrice is angry that the women have tried to convince themselves that Sally took her own life because she had gone mad. At tenko, Miss Hasan berates the women for their complicity in Sally’s suicide and tells them that they will now work in the camp and at the factory. Sister Ulrica is specifically excluded from the punishment, but asks to share in her friends’ suffering. Beatrice confronts Trier about her strict rules on visiting. There is something wrong with Dorothy, but she refuses to talk to the others about it. Marion becomes one of the camp’s schoolmistresses. At the factory, Rose discovers there are male prisoners working nearby. Verna gets to know Mrs Van Meyer better and informs her that Joss is titled. Beatrice experiences her first free time since the Fall of Singapore. The priest arrives to take confession. Sister Ulrica confesses that she presided at Sally’s funeral as her love for her was greater than the horror of the sin she had committed. She is appalled when the priest orders that she reduce her contact with her fellow prisoners and confers a vow of almost absolute silence on her. Through Verna’s intercession, Mrs Van Meyer is appointed as Miss Hasan’s hairdresser. Rose and Joss discuss the possibility that the ‘out-of-sorts’ Dorothy may have caught something off the guards. Beatrice mends an old piano and surprises her friends by playing a popular tune on it. After failing to speak to both Rose and Ulrica, Dorothy is also prevented from approaching Kate while she is on duty. Joss reveals that it is her birthday and Mrs Van Meyer pays for some celebratory biscuits. Dorothy reveals to the group that she is pregnant. Mrs Van Meyer is horrified and harshly rebukes her for her actions. Beatrice and Marion silence her and the latter demands that the news go no further just yet. Ulrica comes across a distraught Dorothy and, when she learns that the girl plans to have an abortion, breaks her vow of silence.

First broadcast: Thursday 5 November 1982

2 January 1943. The women are woken for tenko in their new camp, at which Miss Hasan reminds them of its reputation. Marion challenges Lillian about the swearing fine and the position Verna has carved out for herself. Trier is interested in including Sally as a subject for her research. Kate asks Beatrice not to let Trier know that she is a nurse. Joss is indignant when she learns that Verna and her finance committee use money sent by the Red Cross. An overjoyed Ulrica learns that a priest will visit the camp, but Rose is more interested that he will come from a nearby men’s camp. Sister Ulrica and Marion have an audience with Miss Hasan at which they are told that there is only one leader of the internees here: Verna Johnson. Daisy tells Sally about her background and Sally considers her lucky to have no-one. Verna tells the new arrivals that there is about to be a search and Marion reluctantly hands over her diary to her for safekeeping. Verna returns the diary to Marion, having read it in the interim, and offers her a place on the discipline committee. Daisy invites Sally to a séance led by a Mrs Vance. Shinya refuses payment for the cigarettes he gives to Dorothy so she suggests giving him English lessons instead. At the séance the group believe that Peter is trying to make contact with Sally. Joss intervenes, taking her away. However, the damage is already done as Sally is now certain that Peter is dead. During tenko, Miss Hasan reveals that a General Shimojo will visit the camp the following day and that the women will be required to dress up for a propaganda photograph. Verna provides clothes and make-up for the occasion. During the visit, Sally commits suicide in the washroom. Kate reveals to Trier that she is a nurse in order to help Beatrice prepare Sally’s body. Kate wonders if Sally timed her suicide deliberately to coincide with the General’s visit.

First broadcast: Thursday 28 October 1982

1 January 1943. The women enter their new camp and are surprised when they are not welcomed by its existing residents. Marion is criticised by Mrs Van Meyer and Rose for failing to insist that Nellie, Sylvia and Blanche should stay with them. A French doctor named Natalie Trier introduces herself and examines the new arrivals. A meal is delivered by a nervous girl called Daisy, from whom Joss fails to find out much about the new camp. Beatrice and Mrs Van Meyer are transferred to the camp hospital which is a vast improvement on the facilities in their last camp. The women receive new clothes and Dorothy picks out a garment for Ulrica to use as a habit. At their first tenko in their new surroundings the women are amazed to discover that a woman, Miss Hasan, plays a key role in its administration. They are just as bewildered when they meet an equally well coiffured lady called Verna Johnson who serves them coffee and alcohol. Marion has a joyful reunion with an old schoolfriend, Lillian Cartland, who is there with her son Bobby, and who takes the women on a tour of the camp. Beatrice grows increasingly frustrated while waiting for Dr Trier to see her. Christina is forcibly separated from the other women without any clue as to why. Beatrice discharges herself and has a run-in with Miss Hasan. The women are unsettled by the news that Christina has been sent to another camp to work as a translator. Verna pays a visit to the new arrivals. She tells them that their clothes have disintegrated and advises them to curb their swearing, before presenting the astonished women with a bill for their earlier meal and new clothes. After she leaves, the women cuss freely. Later that night, Rose apologises to Marion for blaming her for recent events. Marion observes that in this new camp they are all going to have to start again.

First broadcast: Thursday 21 October 1982

December 1942. The women have been split into two groups for their journey to the new camp, which they hope will be better equipped than the last one. Their first stopover en route is at a beautiful beach. They learn that the other group, which includes Blanche, Sylvia and Nellie, will not be joining them there. That night, before she goes to sleep, Debbie tells Marion that she is aching all over. By the middle of the night her condition has worsened. Beatrice suspects she has been stung by a scorpion. The next morning Marion learns that it will be a week before they reach their new camp. After several more days travelling – during which their Japanese escorts, Kasaki and Shinya, lose their bearings – the women arrive at a large house which functions as an official Japanese transit post. There they meet fellow prisoner Joss Holbrook who has been waiting for them to arrive. Marion tries to convince their guards that Debbie must receive treatment at a hospital, but they state that this is impossible. The women learn that their absent friends have been sent to another camp. That night Debbie dies. The next morning Kasaki insists that they must leave immediately and that the natives will bury her. However, Ulrica refuses to accept this and leads the women in a show of passive resistance. The Japanese relent and before they leave the transit house, the women give Debbie a Christian burial. Marion subsequently discovers a Star of David among Debbie’s possessions and realises that she and her mother were Jewish. The women continue their long and arduous journey, burying another woman on the way, and finally arrive at the new camp on New Year’s Day 1943. Exhausted and demoralised the internees sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’.