One serial escapee, Squadron Leader Ballard, (Dominic Thorburn) arrives at the camp and is told by the Commandant Lederman (Andrew Pollard one of the writers), were he to escape again, it was most likely that the Gestapo would shoot him.  He becomes Head of the Escape Committee and organises a plan for 200 of the 600 plus prisoners to escape. 

To deal with the likelihood of the German search teams led by the obsessive German Giesler (David Fairs), Ballard directs that three tunnels should be built at the same time. Due to the sandy soil and listening devices it is decided that the tunnels shall be 30 foot deep and over a hundred meters long and ending in the midst of surrounding trees.  Another writer Michael Hugo, one of the writers, takes on the German Huber and Dutch escapee Bob, two very different roles.

There are sections looking at tunnelling, others at clothing, equipment and papers to be used by the escapees.  There is great credit due to the amazing ingenuity of the prisoners who can make something out of nothing, for example stamps carved out of the rubber heels of their shoes, Nazi hat brims from Gramophone records, Nazi uniforms out of blankets and a home made air pump for ventilation in the tunnel. Czech Janáček (Andrius Gaučas) is a skilled tailor and the cat walk scene is super.  A narrative voice over tells us who the men are, where they came from and about their occupation in civilian life.

Supplies were courtesy of the British Red Cross.  Getting rid of the tons of sand, being the wrong colour compared to the surface sand was just one of the many problems overcome. Two of the tunnels were found, Tom and Dick, so all efforts were put into Harry, hidden under a stove in a hut. There is so much more to tell of the true story of these men; the last survivor only died recently.