Colditz

I delivered a radiator to an address in Calver, Derbyshire, the other day. The address turned out to be a massive 19th century mill that had been turned into posh flats. When I got there, I phoned the customer and she told me where to wait, so that she could come down and let me in.

Later, when I was back at the warehouse, I was telling someone about the mill, and what an impressive building it was. He said that he had also delivered there some years ago, when he worked for a furniture company. He also told me that the mill was used as the location for the TV series, Colditz, which was broadcast in the 1970’s.

That night, I looked on YouTube and discovered that all the episodes were available, so I started watching episode one. Episode one opens with a load of British prisoners being marched through the countryside by the Germans. Next, we see them arriving at Colditz Castle, where -after being de-loused and what have you- they are assembled in the courtyard, ready to be addressed by the prison Commandant.

By this time, I had recognized the “castle” as the place I had delivered to earlier in the day. When the camera angle changed and the Commandant came out of the door that I had been let into that morning, carrying a radiator, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The thought that only a few hours earlier I had been in the place where all those captured soldiers had been lined up and had the law laid down to them by that arrogant nob head of a German officer filled me with a very eerie feeling.

Then I remembered that I was only watching a TV drama, and all those soldiers were only actors, and the German officer wasn’t even a German. Still, at least I can say that I delivered a radiator to the place where they filmed that very popular TV series, Colditz, in the 1970s.