Tenko revisited
It was the late 1970s and Lavinia Warner was working as a researcher on This Is Your Life, which was presented by Eamonn Andrews. Lavinia had worked on the lives of everyone from Lord Louis Mountbatten to Dr Magnus Pyke – but one subject was to change her own life more than any other.
Margot Turner, a nurse in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, rose to become Matron-in-Chief and Director, Army Nursing Services, but she also had an indelible war story, having been imprisoned in an all-female Japanese concentration camp.
‘I will never forget the closing moments of Margot’s This Is Your Life when former inmates of these women’s prisons sang something called The Captives’ Hymn, by Margaret Dryburgh, in the studio. It was incredibly moving and helps to explain, I think, why I simply couldn’t leave the story there.’
From left: Ann Bell (Marion Jefferson), Louise Jamerson (Blanche Simmons) and Stephanie Cole (Beatrice Mason)
Lavinia moved to a new job at the BBC as a producer where in time she sold them the idea of taking Margot and Betty Je rey, one of the interned Australian nurses, back to their former camps in Sumatra for the Omnibus documentary, Women In Captivity.
‘The longer I spent on this project and the more people I met – some of the nuns who’d been in the camps were still working in hospitals there – the more I felt that this was the basis for a powerful dramatic television series.’
These were the first stirrings of what was to become the iconic 1980s television series, Tenko. ‘It was a tough job but in the end, via the Army and word of mouth, I managed to track down as many as 40 of the women who had been in the camps. They seemed reluctant to talk about their experiences, not least because they’d said so little for three decades and more.
Tenko cast reunion in January 2012
‘But then it all came flooding out. They’d been treated like third-class citizens, given too little food and water and denied the Red Cross parcels sent to them. Some were planters’ wives, some governesses and some, like Margot, military nurses. All human life was there.’
In all the camps spread throughout Southeast Asia, there were thousands of British, Australian and Dutch female prisoners interned after the fall of Singapore in 1942.
As an idea for a TV drama though, it wasn’t immediately popular. Lavinia remembers being at a drama department Christmas party: ‘Halfway through, I overheard a woman say, “Oh, they’re not going to do that dreadful Tenko thing, are they?” I felt wounded but it hardened my resolve. I thought: “Right, I’ll show you, mate.”
‘Ken Riddington was a terrific producer, although I know he was nervous about working with a female ensemble. At the first read-through, he cleared his throat and said he had something to raise that was a bit sensitive. To make the story authentic, he felt, all the female cast should grow their body hair.
‘There was general assent. But then he spoilt it by adding, “Perhaps you could ask your husbands and boyfriends if that would be all right.” You can imagine the reaction to that. I was lucky, too, in the choice of Pennant Roberts as director but perhaps my greatest good fortune was in the two writers, Anne Valery and Jill Hyem, because if the scripts aren’t right, you’ve lost before you start, and to be assigned two female writers seemed particularly apposite.’
The show opened in October 1981 and soon attracted 15 or 16 million viewers per episode, undreamt of gures in today’s very di erent climate. ‘But, for all that,’ says Lavinia, ‘I don’t think the BBC felt quite comfortable with this rather unusual, female-driven drama, albeit that it was a big hit. It wasn’t until Michael Grade became Controller of BBC One that the high echelons began to champion us.’
So how does she explain the success of the show? ‘A combination of the storylines and the fact that the cast were thrown together for weeks at a time. They bonded above and beyond what you’d normally expect in a group of actors. It helped, too, that it was an ensemble piece with no obvious star structure.’
This is a view strongly endorsed by Stephanie Cole who played the stern camp doctor, Beatrice Mason. ‘We knew it was a wonderful idea, beautifully written. And, of course, it quite wrong-footed the powers that be at the BBC. Our first series coincided with the launch of The Borgias, an unspeakably bad piece of work, into which the Corporation had invested almost all their money and hopes. Suddenly, this little also-ran was attracting millions of viewers.
‘My only other experience of all-female company was the boarding school I’d hated beyond measure – I was expelled for being constantly rude and disruptive. So I arrived at the first rehearsal of Tenko full of trepidation.
‘Within minutes, of course, I could see this was going to be something special. Women are very good at getting to the nitty-gritty. If we feel like dissolving into oods of tears, then we will. We’re not worried about showing our emotions.
‘In real life, members of the cast went through births, marriages and divorces during the filming of Tenko and we were all incredibly supportive. One view – the male view – is, get a group of women together and it’s a bloodbath. Well, that’s absolute rubbish. We were all part of a team making something of which we were proud. Moreover, we were playing a team of women so it was inevitable that we would bond so strongly, twice over.’
Actress Stephanie Beacham (the snooty Rose Millar), is very thankful to Tenko. ‘I’d given up my career – and I’d starred opposite Marlon Brando by then in the film, The Nightcomers – for marriage and babies. When it all came apart at the seams, I was looking for a huge change in my life. And Tenko was it.
‘But we didn’t just bond, the whole experience was life-enhancing. These women have remained with me. Nobody has stuck to the sides of my life like the lot from Tenko.
‘It was that role, of course, that led to the part in TV series Connie, and Sable Colby in Dynasty. It gave me back the con dence to think that people could be decent human beings. Being with this band of deep and intelligent and proper people was exactly what I needed.’
A new book, Remembering Tenko by Andy Priestner, has just been published and Lavinia is planning a trip to the Far East at the beginning of next year as part of an initiative to erect a memorial in Sumatra to the women who died in the camps and those who survived.
‘The British Commonwealth War Graves Commission didn’t keep up the graves like other nations – the Dutch, for instance,’ says Lavinia. ‘So I think it’s important that these women should be honoured in this way.’
Remembering Tenko: A Celebration Of The Classic TV Drama Series, by Andy Priestner (Classic TV Press, £19.99).
Margot Turner, a nurse in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, rose to become Matron-in-Chief and Director, Army Nursing Services, but she also had an indelible war story, having been imprisoned in an all-female Japanese concentration camp.
‘I will never forget the closing moments of Margot’s This Is Your Life when former inmates of these women’s prisons sang something called The Captives’ Hymn, by Margaret Dryburgh, in the studio. It was incredibly moving and helps to explain, I think, why I simply couldn’t leave the story there.’
From left: Ann Bell (Marion Jefferson), Louise Jamerson (Blanche Simmons) and Stephanie Cole (Beatrice Mason)Lavinia moved to a new job at the BBC as a producer where in time she sold them the idea of taking Margot and Betty Je rey, one of the interned Australian nurses, back to their former camps in Sumatra for the Omnibus documentary, Women In Captivity.
‘The longer I spent on this project and the more people I met – some of the nuns who’d been in the camps were still working in hospitals there – the more I felt that this was the basis for a powerful dramatic television series.’
These were the first stirrings of what was to become the iconic 1980s television series, Tenko. ‘It was a tough job but in the end, via the Army and word of mouth, I managed to track down as many as 40 of the women who had been in the camps. They seemed reluctant to talk about their experiences, not least because they’d said so little for three decades and more.
Tenko cast reunion in January 2012‘But then it all came flooding out. They’d been treated like third-class citizens, given too little food and water and denied the Red Cross parcels sent to them. Some were planters’ wives, some governesses and some, like Margot, military nurses. All human life was there.’
In all the camps spread throughout Southeast Asia, there were thousands of British, Australian and Dutch female prisoners interned after the fall of Singapore in 1942.
As an idea for a TV drama though, it wasn’t immediately popular. Lavinia remembers being at a drama department Christmas party: ‘Halfway through, I overheard a woman say, “Oh, they’re not going to do that dreadful Tenko thing, are they?” I felt wounded but it hardened my resolve. I thought: “Right, I’ll show you, mate.”
‘Ken Riddington was a terrific producer, although I know he was nervous about working with a female ensemble. At the first read-through, he cleared his throat and said he had something to raise that was a bit sensitive. To make the story authentic, he felt, all the female cast should grow their body hair.
‘There was general assent. But then he spoilt it by adding, “Perhaps you could ask your husbands and boyfriends if that would be all right.” You can imagine the reaction to that. I was lucky, too, in the choice of Pennant Roberts as director but perhaps my greatest good fortune was in the two writers, Anne Valery and Jill Hyem, because if the scripts aren’t right, you’ve lost before you start, and to be assigned two female writers seemed particularly apposite.’
The show opened in October 1981 and soon attracted 15 or 16 million viewers per episode, undreamt of gures in today’s very di erent climate. ‘But, for all that,’ says Lavinia, ‘I don’t think the BBC felt quite comfortable with this rather unusual, female-driven drama, albeit that it was a big hit. It wasn’t until Michael Grade became Controller of BBC One that the high echelons began to champion us.’
THE TENKO CLUB
So how does she explain the success of the show? ‘A combination of the storylines and the fact that the cast were thrown together for weeks at a time. They bonded above and beyond what you’d normally expect in a group of actors. It helped, too, that it was an ensemble piece with no obvious star structure.’
This is a view strongly endorsed by Stephanie Cole who played the stern camp doctor, Beatrice Mason. ‘We knew it was a wonderful idea, beautifully written. And, of course, it quite wrong-footed the powers that be at the BBC. Our first series coincided with the launch of The Borgias, an unspeakably bad piece of work, into which the Corporation had invested almost all their money and hopes. Suddenly, this little also-ran was attracting millions of viewers.
‘My only other experience of all-female company was the boarding school I’d hated beyond measure – I was expelled for being constantly rude and disruptive. So I arrived at the first rehearsal of Tenko full of trepidation.
‘Within minutes, of course, I could see this was going to be something special. Women are very good at getting to the nitty-gritty. If we feel like dissolving into oods of tears, then we will. We’re not worried about showing our emotions.
‘In real life, members of the cast went through births, marriages and divorces during the filming of Tenko and we were all incredibly supportive. One view – the male view – is, get a group of women together and it’s a bloodbath. Well, that’s absolute rubbish. We were all part of a team making something of which we were proud. Moreover, we were playing a team of women so it was inevitable that we would bond so strongly, twice over.’
Actress Stephanie Beacham (the snooty Rose Millar), is very thankful to Tenko. ‘I’d given up my career – and I’d starred opposite Marlon Brando by then in the film, The Nightcomers – for marriage and babies. When it all came apart at the seams, I was looking for a huge change in my life. And Tenko was it.
‘But we didn’t just bond, the whole experience was life-enhancing. These women have remained with me. Nobody has stuck to the sides of my life like the lot from Tenko.
‘It was that role, of course, that led to the part in TV series Connie, and Sable Colby in Dynasty. It gave me back the con dence to think that people could be decent human beings. Being with this band of deep and intelligent and proper people was exactly what I needed.’
A new book, Remembering Tenko by Andy Priestner, has just been published and Lavinia is planning a trip to the Far East at the beginning of next year as part of an initiative to erect a memorial in Sumatra to the women who died in the camps and those who survived.
‘The British Commonwealth War Graves Commission didn’t keep up the graves like other nations – the Dutch, for instance,’ says Lavinia. ‘So I think it’s important that these women should be honoured in this way.’
Remembering Tenko: A Celebration Of The Classic TV Drama Series, by Andy Priestner (Classic TV Press, £19.99).