U-Boat Wargamers: The Mastermind
10:00 pm - 11:05 pm, Saturday, June 20 on Blaze (Freeview) (64)
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About this Broadcast
The Mastermind
Season 1, Episode 1
The remarkable story of retired war gamer Gilbert Roberts, officer Jean Laidlaw and the Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) - aka the 'Wrens' - as they use revolutionary war gaming tactics to defeat Admiral Karl Dönitz and his Wolf Pack fleets of U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. The Second World War breaks out and a force of U-boats try to starve Britain into submission. Meanwhile, Vera Laughton Mathews recruits talented women into the WRNS. Narrated by Derek Jacobi
Education/Science/Factual Topics
History
More Information
Did You Know..
Derek Jacobi
(Narrator)
Born:
October 22, 1938
in
London
Best Known For:
His classical roles.
Early-life:
Derek George Jacobi was born on October 22, 1938, in Leytonstone, east London. His mother was a secretary and his father managed a department store. He is an only child. He became hooked on movies and dancing as a boy and played Hamlet at school, with the production later appearing at the Edinburgh Festival. During his time there, he was invited to meet an agent, who told him that, at 18, he was too young to become a star. Jacobi spent the next three years studying history at Cambridge, where he befriended Ian McKellen and Trevor Nunn.
Career:
Following acclaimed performances at university, Jacobi joined Birmingham Rep. He was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the National Theatre Company. He made his film debut alongside Olivier in 1965's Othello. Since then, Jacobi has continued to make acclaimed appearances on stage and screen. Among his films are The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, Love Is the Devil, Gladiator, Gosford Park, The King's Speech and Hereafter. He inspired Kenneth Branagh to become an actor and worked alongside him in Henry V, Hamlet and Dead Again. Jacobi won a Bafta for I, Claudius in 1977, starred in the medieval-set series Cadfael, played The Master in Doctor Who, is the narrator of In the Night Garden and scored a surprise hit with Last Tango in Halifax.
Quote:
'As an actor conscious that you are in a theatre, you still have to make it look as spontaneous as if you did not know that you are being watched by 1,000 pairs of eyes.'
Trivia:
He received a knighthood in 1994.
