C4 commissioning editor for History Julia Harrington has commissioned Windfall Films to make Escape from Colditz (w/t), due for transmission on C4 in the summer. A 90-minute film, it will tell the story of the most audacious plan ever devised to escape a prison camp.

According to C4, “In 1945, two British prisoners-of-war were to be catapulted from the roof of Colditz Castle in a homemade glider, fly it to a meadow 180 metres below, where they would continue their escape on foot. The “Colditz Cock”, as the glider was called, represented an incredible feat of aeronautical engineering – particularly since it had to be built in secret in a tiny attic using homemade tools and improvised materials like bed boards, sleeping bags, gramophone springs and porridge! Unfortunately, the war ended before the Cock ever had the chance to stretch its wings and no one knows if the crazy idea would have worked…until now.”

C4”s film will see engineer Dr Hugh Hunt (also seen in Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb & Digging the Great Escape) and his team attempt to rebuild the glider in the very same loft in Colditz, using similar materials to the wartime POWs and comparable tools. Once they’;ve finished, the team will leap into the unknown…

C4 says officials from the State of Saxony, which owns the castle, have granted Windfall Films permission to restage the glider launch from the roof of Colditz to find out whether the plan would have ever actually worked.

Commenting on the commission, Harrington said: “I love ideas that put visual spectacle and real engineering challenge centre stage – and that’;s certainly what Windfall and Hugh are doing here.” Executive producer, Ian Duncan added: “I’;m already practicing the German for ‘;I’;m sorry our glider hit your house’;. Hopefully it won’;t come to that, but that’;s why this is exciting – no one knows whether this is actually going to work.”

Have any of you had a similar reconstruction job for film/TV?

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