Changi. Eps. 1-3

Episodes 1-3 of the television series “Changi”. Written by John Doyle, “Changi” is a series based on the capture and treatment of Australian soldiers taken in 1942 by the Japanese in Singapore. Its primary focus is on a group of men, The Secret Nine’, who battle torture, hunger, sickness and terror with laughter and good old Aussie mateship.Seeing is believing’: The Secret Nine’s annual 9 year reunion is coming up and David (Charles Tingwell, Matthew Newton plays David during the war years) is having flashbacks of his time in the war. There is a lot he has forgotten (or blacked out), and now it’s all coming back to him. They have been captured by the Japanese having spent only two weeks in Singapore. David and the other men go to the Japanese supply store to trade a pack of sewing needles for 5 eggs and 1 tin of strawberry jam, the conditions are bad bad and they are desperate for food. The men are caught and sent back to the barracks, except for David, who manages to steal a pack of razor blades. While David is attempting to return to the camp he is captured and severely beaten - left bloodied, bruised and temporarily blinded. He is picked up by Japanese soldiers and put onto a bus with other local villages who are being taken out to to be shot. David’s mates search for him and eventually find him lying under some trees, he is concussed and sore but in a tenacious effort, still has the packet of razor blades. Gordon’s Will’: Gordon (Anthony Hayes) suffers a stroke and has flashbacks to an experience he had at Changi when he refused to salute Japanese Lieutenant Aso. Lieutenant Aso makes Gordon stand on a box in the middle of the yard and performs violent acts on him to try and force him to salute. Gordon’s friends devise a plan to try and help him but also make a few bets to their favour. It is in this episode that the origin ofSecret Nine’ is disclosed. `Private Bill’: Bill, now a University Professor, sees a young student who looks incredibly like the young girl he fell in love with before going to war. Her visit prompts Bill to reminisce about his experiences in the war. Mathematically clever, Bill is and given problems to try and solve. He builds a radio and discovers the camp will be receiving a visit from an influential general; the boys are given strict orders on how to behave while he visits. They decide to play a trick on the Colonel which will undermine his authority at the camp with the General.