An Everyman special, based on a true story, starring John Hurt
Eric Lomax, a former prisoner of war in Japan, embarks on a search for one of his torturers.
See today's choices.
(Colour and B/W)
(QED and Ruby's Health Quest return next week.)
Return to the River Kwai: page 18

Prisoners in Time 10.00pm BBC1
John Hurt stars in this special drama for VJ Day, the true story of Royal Signals officer Eric Lomax who was captured and tortured by the Japanese in 1942. Prisoners in Time, co-written by Ariel Dorfman (whose Death and the Maiden also deals with the aftermath of torture), shows Lomax's attempts to come to terms with his horrific experiences while working on the notorious Thai-Burma "Death Railway". His captors accused Lomax of having drawn a map of the railway: as punishment, with his arms, shoulder and hip broken, he was made to stand all day in the searing sun and at night, he was kept in a tiny cage.

For Lomax, the best way of coming to terms with a past that he could never forget was to track down the group of men who were responsible for his torture. There was one he remembered better than all the rest - the Japanese interpreter for the military police, Nagase Takashi, whose voice was the constant background to his suffering. You can read more of the amazing story of Lomax's search for Takashi on page 18.