Private Schulz (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Private Schulz was a BBC
television
comedy drama mini-series starring Michael Elphick
in the title role and Ian Richardson
playing various parts. Other notable actors included Tony Caunter
, Billie Whitelaw
, Billy Murray
and Mark Wingett
.
Over six one-hour episodes, it tells the story of a German fraudster who tricks the Nazis into making counterfeit British five pound notes, millions of which will be used to destroy the British economy. However, Schulz is primarily interested in stealing them.
It was based on several real life incidents:
Additionally, many of the main characters are real people (though occasionally under a different name).
It also starred Billie Whitelaw
as a prostitute working in 'The Salon Kitty', where German officers were secretly recorded by the SS in the prostitutes' bedrooms. Whitelaw's character claimed to have a psychological block that prevented her sleeping with any soldier below the rank of major
.
The screenplay was by Jack Pulman
, who had previously adapted I, Claudius
for the BBC. He died in 1979 before any filming had taken place. In 1982, he was posthumously awarded a writers award by The Royal Television Society
for his work on Private Schulz.
Other notable names involved in the show include composer Carl Davis
and former Doctor Who
producer Philip Hinchcliffe
.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
comedy drama mini-series starring Michael Elphick
Michael Elphick
Michael John Elphick was an English actor. Elphick was known in the UK for his trademark croaky voice and his work on British television, in particular his roles as the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series Boon and later Harry Slater in BBC's EastEnders.Robust and ruggedly good-looking...
in the title role and Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor....
playing various parts. Other notable actors included Tony Caunter
Tony Caunter
Anthony Peter "Tony" Caunter is a British actor best known for his role as Jack Shepherd in the Yorkshire TV sitcom Queenie's Castle and also his portrayal of Roy Evans in EastEnders from 1994-2003....
, Billie Whitelaw
Billie Whitelaw
Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
, Billy Murray
Billy Murray (actor)
Billy Murray is an English actor, best known for playing Don Beech in The Bill from 1995 to 2004, Johnny Allen in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2005 to 2006, Captain John Price in the video games Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare...
and Mark Wingett
Mark Wingett
Mark Wingett , is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of Jim Carver in the ITV1 police procedural The Bill.-Career:...
.
Over six one-hour episodes, it tells the story of a German fraudster who tricks the Nazis into making counterfeit British five pound notes, millions of which will be used to destroy the British economy. However, Schulz is primarily interested in stealing them.
It was based on several real life incidents:
- The Venlo incidentVenlo IncidentThe Venlo Incident was a covert German Sicherheitsdienst engineered capture of two British SIS agents on 9 November 1939....
, when two British officers were abducted from the Netherlands - The real though unrealised plot by the Germans, Operation BernhardOperation BernhardOperation Bernhard was the codename of a secret Nazi plan devised during the Second World War by the RSHA and the SS to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes...
. - Salon KittySalon KittySalon Kitty was a Berlin brothel used by the SD for espionage purposes before and during World War II.In the 1930s Berlin, Salon Kitty was a high-class brothel in 11 Giesebrechtstrasse. Its usual clientele included German dignitaries and foreign diplomats...
, a Nazi sponsored brothel used to spy on its wealthy clients. - Sachsenhausen concentration campSachsenhausen concentration campSachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
counterfeiting operation.
Additionally, many of the main characters are real people (though occasionally under a different name).
It also starred Billie Whitelaw
Billie Whitelaw
Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
as a prostitute working in 'The Salon Kitty', where German officers were secretly recorded by the SS in the prostitutes' bedrooms. Whitelaw's character claimed to have a psychological block that prevented her sleeping with any soldier below the rank of major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
.
The screenplay was by Jack Pulman
Jack Pulman
Jack Pulman was an award-winning British television screenwriter, most famous for the critically acclaimed 1976 BBC television series, I, Claudius, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Graves....
, who had previously adapted I, Claudius
I, Claudius (TV series)
I, Claudius is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Written by Jack Pulman, it proved one of the corporation's most successful drama serials of all time...
for the BBC. He died in 1979 before any filming had taken place. In 1982, he was posthumously awarded a writers award by The Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
for his work on Private Schulz.
Other notable names involved in the show include composer Carl Davis
Carl Davis
Carl Davis CBE is an American born conductor and composer who has made his home in the UK since 1961. In 1970 he married the English actress Jean Boht....
and former Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
producer Philip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe is a British television producer, who brought shows including Private Schulz and The Charmer to the screen, probably best known for the overseeing of British television series Doctor Who from 1974-1977...
.
Cast
- Private Gerhard Schulz - Michael ElphickMichael ElphickMichael John Elphick was an English actor. Elphick was known in the UK for his trademark croaky voice and his work on British television, in particular his roles as the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series Boon and later Harry Slater in BBC's EastEnders.Robust and ruggedly good-looking...
- Major Neuheim - Ian RichardsonIan RichardsonIan William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor....
- Bertha Freya - Billie WhitelawBillie WhitelawBillie Honor Whitelaw, CBE is an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works...
- Gertrude Steiner - Rula LenskaRula LenskaRula Lenska is an English actress. Best known for her work in the United Kingdom, she is remembered in the United States for a television advert that presented her as a celebrity, even though she was not widely known in the US at the time the advert was produced.She has appeared extensively on...
- Iphraim Solly Solikoff - Cyril ShapsCyril Shaps-Biography:Shaps was born in Highbury, London; he was of Polish ancestry and his father was a tailor.He was a child broadcaster, providing voices for radio commercials at the age of 12. After grammar school and Army service he trained at RADA and then worked for two years as an announcer, producer...
- Schumacher - Terence Suffolk
- Professor Bodelschwingh - David SwiftDavid SwiftDavid Swift is a British actor.He was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, and educated at Clifton College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied law. He then embarked on a career as a businessman with his father-in-law, J.P Jacobs, whose company supplied all the elastic to Marks &...