In this period drama, a wartime romance between a black American GI and a married English woman leads to a devastating accusation.
During the Second World War, a platoon of black American soldiers is stationed in a small English village where they are met with prejudice. One of the GIs, Travis, forms a close bond with Maggie, a married local woman whose husband is away at war. Their friendship develops into a clandestine love affair. The situation comes to a head when Maggie’s husband, Edward, returns unexpectedly from the front and discovers the two of them together. His initial assumption that his wife was assaulted turns to vengeful fury upon learning the truth. He has Travis arrested for rape and coerces a distraught Maggie into supporting the false accusation by threatening to ensure she loses custody of their son. She reluctantly agrees, only to learn that the charge carries the death penalty under US military law.
A co-production between the BBC and HBO, this teleplay was originally developed for the Screen One anthology but was ultimately broadcast as a standalone drama. The story uses the framework of a wartime romance to examine the racial and cultural frictions of the ‘friendly invasion’. The arrival of an African-American platoon in a rural English village provides the catalyst for a story of forbidden love, but the narrative’s real interest is in the collision of prejudices. What begins as a story of private passion becomes a public tragedy, as a spurned husband’s jealousy weaponizes the institutional racism of the US military justice system.
Broadcast: BBC One, One Episode, First broadcast 14 October 1995 (USA)
Production: A BBC / HBO Co-production
Writers: Pablo Fenjves and Bryan Goluboff
Executive Producer: Harry Belafonte
Producers: David M. Thompson and John Smithson
Director: Paul Seed
Main Cast: Courtney B. Vance (Travis), Kerry Fox (Maggie), Leland Gantt (Barrett), Ciaran Hinds (Edward Leyland), Beatie Edney (Esther), Ned Beatty (Colonel Banning), Bill Nunn (Sergeant Rivers), Rory Jennings (David Leyland), Adrian Lester (Ray), Fraser James (Sonny), Martin McDougall (Howard), Nicholas Selby (Mr Leyland), Anna Cropper (Mrs Leyland), Rolf Saxon (Captain Marks), William Russell (Doctor Hastings), Eamon Boland (Police Sergeant), Todd Boyce (Captain Carlton), Michael J. Shannon (Captain Ford), William Roberts (Clerk), Burnell Tucker (Bailiff), John Fitzgerald-Jay (Guard)
