4.0/1028 votesLoading...#1 - What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 12/22/1979
1969. Albert, Monique, Natalie and Alain are invited to take part in a British TV documentary “In Our Time” commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Brussels. Also participating is Kessler, now known as Manfred Dorf. The former Lifeline personnel reunite at the Candide, and discuss their lives during the war. NB: The episode was never broadcast due to quality issues and the feeling that the content ran contrary to the main dramatic themes of the overall series.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.3/1056 votesLoading...#2 - Not According to Plan
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/1978
Natalie’s new boyfriend, Francois, is keen to become involved in Lifeline, but Albert has doubts. Paul Vercors, the fanatical leader of a Communist cell in Brussels, wants to take over Lifeline, and tries to enlist the assistance of a colleague – Max. Meanwhile, the Communists continue their resistance activities and plant explosives on a railway line to derail a train. Unfortunately, the train’s passengers include Natalie and Francois, escorting evaders down the line.
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: David Crane
7.6/1064 votesLoading...#3 - Identity In Doubt
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/9/1977
With so many evaders, Lifeline’s resources are once more stretched to the limit and they must watch their backs after recent events. Jacques and Natalie are dispatched to check out a young South African evader, Noel Uys, and have to consider eliminating him when his answers to their questions fail to satisfy either them or London. In desperation to survive, Uys overpowers Jacques and armed with a shotgun, takes Natalie as his hostage.
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: Simon Masters
7.6/1055 votesLoading...#4 - Russian Roulette
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/1978
Dr. Keldermans visits the Candide with tragic news, and Albert must take decisive action if Lifeline is to continue. Meanwhile, Natalie has the difficult task of taking two eccentric Russian evaders down the line. Brandt dines with a high-ranking military acquaintance, Oberst von Elmendorff, who tries to recruit him in a military plot to assassinate Hitler, while Kessler invites Albert to a strange garden party.
Director: Paul Annett
Writer: John Brason
7.6/1054 votesLoading...#5 - Guests at God's Table
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 11/29/1978
Christmas is approaching, and Lifeline finds itself having to play Saint Nicholas when a wounded Group Captain is discovered by a group of abandoned children fending for themselves, who are prepared to sell the officer in turn for food and presents. However, Albert fears that it could all be an elaborate trap set up by the Germans. Meanwhile, Brandt finds his loyalties to Germany divided after recent events and confides his worries to Kessler.
Director: Terence Dudley
Writer: John Brason
- 7.8/1053 votesLoading...
#6 - Ring of Rosies
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/1979
Still languishing in prison, Albert learns that he was set up by the Communist leader Paul Vercors. Meanwhile, Dr. Keldermans makes a shocking discovery when examining an evader at a safehouse – the man is dying of bubonic plague. Lifeline’s personnel face the horrifying possibility of being wiped out by the deadly disease.
Director: Michael E. Briant
Writer: John Brason
7.9/1078 votesLoading...#7 - Child's Play
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 9/28/1977
An American airman has written a magazine article about his experiences being shot down in Europe and getting back home with the help of the evasion lines. British Intelligence has blocked the article’s publication, but Brandt has managed to obtain a copy from German intelligence based in America. Studying the article, he begins to deduce the probable route taken during the evasion and travels to the Pyrenees, where he enlists the aid of Malaud, a French policeman, to close in on the line. Meanwhile, Lisa is also in the area, taking some evaders down the very route Brandt is so close to tracking down.
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: Arden Winch
7.9/1058 votesLoading...#8 - Hymn To Freedom
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 11/30/1977
Lifeline once again must tread carefully when one of their safehouses is blown. Meanwhile, Van Reijn, a minister in the puppet Belgian government, wants to defect to England and contacts Curtis. Curtis tries to persuade Lisa to let Van Reijn be sent down the line, citing the propaganda value of such a defection. However, matters become complicated, as Lifeline has once more been secretly infiltrated by a German officer.
Director: Kenneth Ives
Writer: Michael Chapman
7.9/1060 votesLoading...#9 - Weekend
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/8/1978
Hoping to boost Lifeline’s flagging funds and gain some independence from London, Albert and Monique concoct a plan to sell three valuable Rubens paintings, replacing the originals with forgeries. However, Kessler is also aware of the paintings’ existence and plans to acquire them for Germany, setting out to remove them from the convent near Antwerp where they are held. Meanwhile, two American evaders, impatient with Lifeline’s security checks, decide to strike out on their own and ambush the car that Kessler is travelling in. Totally unaware of the true identity of their hostage, the Americans and their captive impose themselves on Hans and Lena Van Broecken, demanding that they are taken to Switzerland on their barge. Lifeline must not only retrieve the paintings, but also ensure that no harm comes to Kessler, as horrifying reprisals by the Germans are at stake.
Director: Paul Annett
Writer: John Brason, Paul Annett
8.0/1088 votesLoading...#10 - Lisa-Codename Yvette
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/7/1977
Lifeline, a Brussels-based resistance organisation smuggling downed RAF fliers back to Britain, is endangered when Luftwaffe Major Erwin Brandt blows one of their safehouses. The Lifeline leaders, Lisa Colbert and café proprietor Albert Foiret, are suspicious when London sends Flight Lieutenant John Curtis, who had previously gone down the line with Lisa, to help co-ordinate their activities. Brandt, meanwhile, also finds assistance from Gestapo Sturnbannfuhrer Ludwig Kessler, transferred from Berlin to crack down on the evasion lines.
Director: Kenneth Ives
Writer: Willis Hall
8.0/1055 votesLoading...#11 - Little Old Lady
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 11/22/1978
A British Wing Commander is badly burned after he has been shot down over Belgium. London wants him back urgently, but his facial injuries make it difficult for him to go down the line. He manages to get to Paris with Natalie as his guide, but Monique decides that if he is to avoid detection he must disguise himself as a woman for the rest of the journey. Meanwhile, Madeleine is ostracised for her relationship with Kessler, but finds a new friend in Monique. The Candide and its staff are targeted by terrorists for being collaborators, and Natalie and Max fear the worst when the Gestapo arrest Albert.
Director: Terence Dudley
Writer: David Crane
- 8.0/1048 votesLoading...
#12 - Bridgehead
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 12/8/1979
The Allied liberation of Brussels paradoxically brings terror for the former Lifeline workers. About to face savage punishment after being falsely accused of collaboration, Monique is rescued thanks to Natalie and a British officer, Captain Stephen Durnford. She moves in with Natalie, where Durnford visits her and the two become close. Natalie tries to persuade Albert to declare his feelings for Monique, but he remains convinced that she will come back to him and the Candide. Meanwhile, Hans Van Broecken has to deal with two German deserters who have stowed away aboard his barge.
Director: Andrew Morgan
Writer: Michael J. Bird
8.1/1081 votesLoading...#13 - Sergeant on the Run
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/14/1977
Albert and Lisa continue to be suspicious of Curtis, whilst Lifeline is stretched to its limit trying to deal with several evaders. The Germans capture one evader, Sergeant Walker, who has travelled down the line and is familiar with several of Lifeline’s personnel. Walker makes a desperate bid for freedom to avoid talking and throws himself down a staircase at Gestapo headquarters. As Walker recovers in hospital, Lifeline deliberate over whether he can be rescued from the Germans or if he must be silenced to preserve the security of the line.
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: John Brason
8.1/1058 votesLoading...#14 - Scorpion
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/1978
Brandt receives a visit from his wife Erika, who asks him to let her and their children come to live with him in Brussels as it is becoming too dangerous to carry on living in Berlin with the increasing British air raids. Brandt tells Erika that his work in Brussels may soon be over, as he has successfully infiltrated Lifeline with an undercover agent. Word of this reaches the Candide, and Albert must face the grim possibility of killing all evaders currently in hiding to preserve the safety of the line. However, Max and Dr. Keldermans have an alternative plan to discover the identity of the infiltrator, but the scheme requires the assistance of Natalie’s uncle, Hans Van Broecken, who hates Albert and will not help Lifeline.
Director: Roger Jenkins
Writer: James Andrew Hall
- 8.1/1048 votesLoading...
#15 - Ambush
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/1979
Bradley travels to the Ardennes to continue recruiting his own private army of former airmen to engage in sabotage activities – the target is V2 testing sites. Bradley’s first objective, however, is to hijack a convoy of weapons and he asks Monique for assistance in recruiting men and resources. Lifeline, previously an evasion network, is now a fully-fledged guerrilla operation
Director: Michael E. Briant
Writer: N.J. Crisp
8.2/1069 votesLoading...#16 - Second Chance
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/5/1977
The safety of Lifeline is at risk when Albert deduces that the Candide is being watched by a Gestapo spy, while Lisa continues to resent Curtis’ presence and his domineering take-charge manner. A wounded RAF evader, Finch, finds sanctuary with Hans Van Broecken, a Dutchman who lives on a barge with his wife Lena. Finch plans to desert the army and escape to Switzerland and finds a kindred spirit in Hans, who is in fact German and deserted during the First World War. Hans plans to take Finch to Switzerland himself on the barge, but Lifeline becomes involved when Lena receives a visit from her niece – Natalie. However, helping evaders escape to comfortable Swiss internment is not Lifeline’s purpose, and how can Finch be involved with Lifeline with the Candide under German surveillance?
Director: Paul Annett
Writer: James Andrew Hall
8.2/1063 votesLoading...#17 - Good Friday
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/14/1977
As Easter approaches, a monk from a local order, Father Girard, visits the Candide to hear Andree’s confession and also overhears a conversation about an evader. He offers his assistance to Lisa, who gratefully agrees that the airman can be hidden in the abbey over Easter. At the abbey, the head of the order, Father Pierre, is happy to help Lifeline, however another of the brothers, Brother Anselm, strongly believes that the order should not endanger itself by getting involved with the resistance and misguidedly contacts Kessler.
Director: Paul Annett
Writer: John Brason
8.2/1056 votesLoading...#18 - The Big One
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/1978
Kessler is enjoying his developing relationship with Madeleine, but begins to feel that his feelings for her may cloud his judgement while Brandt is once more approached about joining the military plot to assassinate Hitler. The British co-ordinate a massive air raid attack on Berlin, but bombs are dropped on civilian targets in error – with tragic repercussions for Brandt. Monique and Alain try but fail to help a bomb aimer shot down on his way back to England. Having captured the man, Brandt finds himself face to face with the enemy and this time, it’s personal.
Director: Michael E. Briant
Writer: N.J. Crisp
- 8.2/1050 votesLoading...
#19 - Invasions
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 9/29/1979
Lifeline’s original function is now over – the Allied advance has severed the evasion lines and it is now a matter of keeping evaders safely hidden until the war is over. Despite Kessler’s irritation at Reinhardt’s manner and methods, his efforts pay dividends when he discovers a Lifeline safehouse. Two of his new prisoners commit suicide rather than talk, but Reinhardt is determined that the third prisoner will give information under torture. Albert and Monique receive a tip-off that the middle-aged Chantal sisters, who are based in Senlis and often shelter airmen for Lifeline, are in imminent danger.
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: Lloyd Humphreys
8.3/1078 votesLoading...#20 - Radishes With Butter
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/21/1977
The Jewish population of Brussels is being systemically deported according to colour-coded identification papers developed by the Germans. Curtis becomes involved with a Jewish family hiding out in the city and asks Lisa if Lifeline can help, but Lisa is unwilling to put the line, which is supposed to help RAF evaders not Jews, at risk. Curtis himself is still under suspicion by Albert, when Lisa’s uncle, bank manager Gaston Colbert, identifies Belgian banknotes he brought over from London as forgeries. Kessler obtains some of the notes, and realises that they are too accurate to be real and have been made by the Belgian treasury plates, which were evacuated to London before the German invasion. He believes that the notes will bring him closer to Lifeline.
Director: Paul Annett
Writer: John Brason
8.3/1073 votesLoading...#21 - Lost Sheep
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/19/1977
Flight Lieutenant Peter Romsey, a RAF navigator, is one of Lifeline’s latest customers and London are anxious for his swift return – his technical knowledge of the Oboe navigation system is vitally important. Natalie takes Romsey and other evaders down the line, but Romsey is separated from the others and takes the wrong train, finding himself lost in the French countryside. As Lifeline tries to track him down, Romsey finds unexpected assistance from Hugh and Dorothy Neville, an expatriate English couple. A celebrated author utterly disillusioned with the war, Neville must decide where his true loyalties lie when Romsey turns up on his doorstep.
Director: Paul Annett
Writer: N.J. Crisp
8.3/1057 votesLoading...#22 - Lucky Piece
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/11/1978
Lifeline must work overtime when a heavy storm downs several British planes on their way back from a bombing raid on Berlin. Natalie comes into contact with Major Nicholas Bradley, a British officer on a special assignment, who is uncooperative and highly critical of Lifeline’s security when he follows her all the way back to the Candide. It seems that Bradley’s concern is well founded, as an undercover Gestapo man is also tailing Natalie.
Director: Viktors Ritelis
Writer: Robert Barr
- 8.3/1058 votesLoading...
#23 - The Last Run
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 9/22/1979
At Gestapo headquarters, Kessler takes an instant dislike to the newly arrived Luftwaffe Major Hans Dietrich Reinhardt, who has joined him in a final concerted attempt to crush the evasion lines. As the Allies continue to advance from the invasion beaches, Lifeline must continue their efforts in getting airmen back to Britain, but when Natalie attempts to guide two evaders down to Spain, it becomes clear that their work may at last be over.
Director: Michael E. Briant
Writer: N.J. Crisp
- 8.3/1052 votesLoading...
#24 - Prisoner
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 10/27/1979
Major Nick Bradley returns to Brussels to co-ordinate resistance activities whilst waiting for the Allies’ final push, and clashes with Monique over leadership of Lifeline. A tense time is in store for Lifeline when Alain is arrested, and Bradley decides to make a deal with a German officer to try to get him out of Gestapo headquarters. However, the officer demands one million francs in exchange for Alain’s freedom.
Director: Tristan de Vere Cole
Writer: Robert Barr
- 8.3/1052 votesLoading...
#25 - Just Light the Blue Touch-Paper
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/1979
As Bradley’s army remains in hiding along the Dutch border, he and Natalie become closer as they work together planning the raid on the V2 site. To increase his chances of success, Bradley must try to obtain the rocket delivery schedule and plans to get the information by dining with Kessler at the Candide…. Meanwhile, Reinhardt is rapidly closing in on Lifeline, with Natalie as his chief suspect.
Director: Michael E. Briant
Writer: John Brason
The Worst Episodes of Secret Army
Every episode of Secret Army ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Secret Army!
World War II drama about covert organisation Lifeline helping allied airmen escape after being shot down in occupied Europe, working with the Resistance and hiding...
Genres:DramaWar & Politics
Network:BBC One
Worst Episodes Summary
"What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?" is the worst rated episode of "Secret Army". It scored 4/10 based on 28 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 12/22/1979. This episode scored 3.3 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Not According to Plan".