Tenko (TV series)

Tenko
Created by	Lavinia Warner
Starring	Ann Bell Stephanie Cole Stephanie Beacham Louise Jameson Patricia Lawrence Veronica Roberts Emily Bolton Elizabeth Chambers Claire Oberman Jean Anderson Burt Kwouk Nicolas Corry
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	31
Production
Running time	1 Hour (including ads)
Original release
Network	BBC
Release	1981 – 1985

Tenko is a television drama, co-produced by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). A total of thirty episodes was produced between 1981 and 1984, followed by a one-off special (which was twice the length of the other episodes), Tenko Reunion, in 1985.

The series dealt with the experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women who were captured after the fall of Singapore in February 1942, after the Japanese invasion, and interned in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

Tenko was created by Lavinia Warner after she had conducted research into the internment of nursing corps officer Margot Turner (1910–1993) for an edition of This Is Your Life and was convinced of the dramatic potential of the stories of women prisoners of the Japanese. Aside from the first two episodes, set in Singapore, which were written by Paul Wheeler, the series was written by Jill Hyem and Anne Valery.

Due to high production costs only the first two episodes of the first series were filmed on location in Singapore. The majority of the series, set in the camp, was filmed in a specially constructed set in Dorset.

Major characters

See : Tenko Characters

The major characters who featured in all three series and the reunion telemovie were:

• Marion Jefferson (Ann Bell) - the wife of an army colonel.
• Beatrice Mason (Stephanie Cole) - a stern, officious doctor.
• Kate Norris (Claire Oberman) - a brash Australian nurse.
• Domenica Van Meyer (Elizabeth Chambers) - a vain, selfish Dutch woman.
• Christina Campbell (Emily Bolton) - a mixed-race (Chinese/Scottish) young woman.
• Dorothy Bennett (Veronica Roberts) - a young working-class housewife.
• Sister Ulrica (Patricia Lawrence) - a formidable Dutch nun.

First series

The first series establishes the pre-war lives of many of the characters before chronicling the fall of Singapore, and the evacuation of British nationals from the city. One ship, bound for Australia with a smattering of refugees on board, is torpedoed and sinks in the Java sea.

The survivors gather on a beach, and are subsequently captured by Japanese soldiers and separated from the male prisoners and are interned under Commandant Yamauchi (Burt Kwouk), a deeply traditional Japanese soldier, who regards the prisoners as "fourth-class women". His sadistic deputy, Lieutenant Sato (Eiji Kusuhara) is dubbed "Satan" by the inmates.

Conditions in the camp are harsh; no clean water, and little more than rice and water for the inmates to eat and drink. In addition to the main cast, the major personalities of the first season's episodes included elegant snob Rose Millar (Stephanie Beacham), tarty Cockney Blanche Simmons (Louise Jameson), nurse Nellie Keene (Jeananne Crowley), newlywed Sally Markham (Joanna Hole), mother and daughter Judith (Ann Queensberry) and Debbie Bowen (Karin Foley) and Sylvia Ashburton (Renée Asherson), a haughty general's wife.

The first series chronicles the women's first year in captivity, ending during Christmas 1942, focusing on their efforts to adjust to being interned and to their new Dutch companions in the camp.

Second series

As the second series opens, the prisoners have been split into two groups and are on the long trek to a new camp. The first episode deals with the long march through the jungle, the realisation that the other group (including Blanche, Nellie & Sylvia) have been sent to a different camp, the death of Debbie Bowen and the introduction of Joss Holbrook, whom they meet whilst on the way to the new camp.

Once at the new camp the prisoners find the way the camp is run very different to that of the first. It is effectively run by Miss Hasan (Josephine Welcome), the commandant's interpreter, who has installed her own leader, Verna Johnson (Rosemary Martin), a "collaborator" who ensures she is excused manual labour and is in control of the camp's food supplies. Christina Campbell is removed from the camp to work as an official interpreter elsewhere, which sends Sally Markham further into depression and eventually commits suicide by slashing her wrists with a mirror she has purchased from Verna Johnson.

The women are blamed for Sally's suicide and are given less rations and more work as a result. Early on in arriving at the new camp, Dorothy bennett finds herself pregnant by one of the guards and organised by Verna Johnson, Beatrice Mason performs an abortion. Sister Ulrica confesses to the visiting priest of knowing about such an act and is sent to a nunnery.

In addition to the main cast and several holdovers from the first series, new additions to the cast included tough-as-boots aristocrat Jocelyn "Joss" Holbrook (Jean Anderson), Marion's old friend Lillian Cartland (Philippa Urquhart), orphaned Daisy Robertson (Anna Lindup) and Dr. Natalie Trier (Carolle Rousseau).

During the second series, many of the cast members die including Debbie Bowen, Sally Markham, Rose Millar and upon being shifted to the 2nd camp later on in the series, Blanche Simmons announces that Syvia Ashburton has died of Cholera.

The second series ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, as the camp receives a direct hit during an Allied bombing raid on the local Japanese headquarters.

Third series

The third series opens with the liberation of the prisoners-of-war, amidst the end of the war and the return of Singapore to British control. All of the returning POW's make a difficult adjustment to civilian life.

Dorothy and Maggie Thorpe (Elizabeth Mickery) befriend local businessman Jake Haulter (Damien Thomas), Joss is re-acquainted with an old friend, Stephen Wentworth (Preston Lockwood) and Marion's marriage to Clifford (Jonathan Newth) - now a brigadier - suffers because of his expectation she return to life as a docile army wife.

The third series also follows Clifford's work in bringing war crimes charges against the Japanese, including a personal vendetta to indict Yamauchi for his role in imprisoning Marion and the others. Because of her unique relationship with Yamauchi - Marion and the commandant came to a grudging respect for one another through the turbulent events of the first two episodes - Marion (as well as Christina and Ulrica) refuses to testify against Yamauchi, further estranging Clifford.

Analysis

The series was praised for its bold storytelling, and outstanding performances from its leads. Despite its comparatively modest production values, it has been favourably compared to big-budget versions of what is essentially the same story, such as the Bruce Beresford film Paradise Road.

Tenko can also be regarded as an interesting fusion of historical drama and soap opera, with its focus on the more personal aspects of living in the camp and its handling of issues such as rape, stillbirth, lesbianism, suicide, abortion and euthanasia within the context of 1940's morality.

Tenko Reunion

In 1985, a two-hour special, Tenko Reunion, was produced. It picked up a story thread from the final episode of the series, in which the surviving prisoners of war, on the eve of their repatriation from Singapore, had made a promise to reunite five years later, at Raffles Hotel - a fixture in their pre-war lives, which also served as a repatriation centre during the liberation of Singapore.

Tenko Reunion featured Marion Jefferson (Ann Bell) now divorced from Clifford; Dr Beatrice Mason (Stephanie Cole) and Christina Campbell (Emily Bolton) now working in a community centre in Singapore, Domenica Forster-Brown (Elizabeth Chambers), the now happily re-married Mrs Van Meyer, nurse and now doctor-in-training Kate Norris (Clare Oberman), young Alice Courtenay (Cindy Shelley) and working class girls Dorothy Bennett (Veronica Roberts) and Maggie Carter (Elizabeth Mickery), now a successful businesswoman and married mother of two, respectively.

The reunion examined how each of their lives had changed, and how life in Singapore was also changing. In a dramatic twist, the women are held at gunpoint at the plantation on the estate of Domenica Forster-Brown - after one among them passes information that there is a cache of guns on the estate to a band of local communist rebels.

It featured Domenica's new husband Teddy Forster-Brown (Robert Lang), Christina Campbell's boyfriend, Lau Peng (Swee Hoe Lim) and a young doctor who catches Kate Norris's eye, Duncan Fraser (Christian Rodska).

The major twist of the Tenko Reunion was the revelation that it was one of the women who had betrayed them to the communist rebels. The spy was revealed to be Christina Campbell, whose difficulty adjusting after life in the camps had been developed in detail in the third series.

Christina's experience with racism - from Sylvia Ashburton's "Raj"-style disdain for her in the first series, to the difficulties of being caught between the British establishment in Singapore, and her Chinese appearance, had stoked the fires of rebellion in her. She secretly worked for the rebels, hoping to trigger independence for Singapore on their terms.

The series concluded at a subsequent reunion, this one at Christmas, at Marion's home in London, attended by Dominica, Alice, Jake, Stephen, Bea, Marion, Maggie, and Dorothy, with brief glimpses of Kate, Ulrica, and Duncan serving Christmas dinner to the poor at the community centre in Singapore, and Christina - alone and unrepentant - in her prison cell.

DVD release

The complete series of Tenko is available on DVD (Region 2, UK) through Acorn Media. For Australia, Series 1 (in two parts) in 2006, Series 2 will be released in March 2008 and Series 3 later.

External links

• Complete cast list and episode guide
• Lavinia Warner's page on Tenko
• Real Player version of the opening titles, at the BBC Cult homepage
• A brief essay on the series, and an episode guide
• British Film Institute Screen Online