History can be misleading. Sure, the subject of Edward VIII: the Nazi King (DR2, Fri 21:20) may have been a fascist, but he didn’t look like he was separated at birth from John Merrick like the bloke in this docudrama. He didn’t sire more bastards than any royal in history – half of Australia is descended from his loins – because of his HRH status alone. The man may have been a Nazi, but he wasn’t nasty looking.
Made by Channel Five, the broadcaster behind such gems as Was Hitler Gay?, this glosses over all the norms of the day – namely that the only British aristo who wasn’t a Nazi sympathiser was Goody Two Shoes, soon to be the Queen Mum. Still, the 2009 doc is worth watching as it makes use of some FBI files released under the US Freedom of Information Act that confirm Edward passed on secret information that made Hitler change his France invasion plans, advised that “continued heavy bombing would make England ready for peace”, tried to advise Roosevelt not to join the war, and was being lined up to retake the throne should Britain fall.
Meanwhile, Churchill, concerned that British-based German POWs would inflate an invasion force, decided to ship 40,000 of them off to Canada where they saw out the conflict at 26 camps. The docudrama Hitler’s Canadians (DR2, Thu 18:05) recounts their adventures – before America joined in late 1941 they had a realistic chance of freedom. Some compared the Canadian camps to hotels, and 6,000 of them liked it so much they ended up emigrating there.
Elsewhere this week, Paddy Considine is brilliant in the second part of Red Riding, don’t miss two of the best games of the season so far: Real Madrid vs Barcelona (K6, Sat 21:00) and Chelsea vs Manchester City (K6, Mon 21:00); narrated by Kim Basinger, The Mystery of the Hope Diamond (DR2, Sat 21:35) is an intriguing collection of stories about the diamond that inspired the fictitious one in ‘Titanic’; and among the films worth watching are Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof (TV2 Zulu, Wed 22:40); Clint Eastwood Changeling (TV3, Sat 21:00), and Sleuth (SV2, Sat 21:30), the screenplay of which was written by the late Harold Pinter.
