Un Village Français - Season 1 (2009 Frédéric Krivine, Philippe Triboit)

Not too keen to research this yet for fear of finding out plot developments, early death of lead character etc. (You know that feeling when you're writing up a 20 episode series and you notice a lead character is only in it 18 episodes..) Being now in Season 7 it has undoubtedly been a success in France - has anything quite like it been done before? It's an obvious choice for BBC4.

Immediately gripping set of characters (Thierry Godard and Audrey Fleurot familiar to us from Engrenages, since 2005) and situation ('Now, they're gonna end up in the Resistance...He's gonna be the nice German soldier' etc.) very well told.

Krivine has been writing for television since the early nineties.

Patrick Descamps sure seems familiar, like he should be in a Buñuel, but he isn't.

Really well acted and delivered in that wonderfully undramatic yet tense way the French do so well (think L'Armee des Ombres or Au Revoir Les Enfants). With Robin Renucci (doctor), Nicolas Gob (Marchetti, police), Nade God (Godard's lover), Emanuelle Bach (his wife), Fabrizio Rongione (commie brother), Marie Kremer (school teacher), Francis Renaud,

Constance Dolle, Thierry Godard, Robin Renucci, Richard Sammel, Nicolas Gob, Audret Fleurot, Emmanuelle Bach, Marie Kremer and Francois Loriquet

Devastating ending in which debate about ethics of killing turns rapidly into execution.