It helped me track a BBC series The Real Heroes of Telemark and the good news is that it is available on YouTube. This story relates to my previous entry where I talk about this weekend´s casual discovery of an extraordinary wartime story.
The rest of the episodes are here.
That story deserved a fantastic storyteller and apparently it found one.
The BBC documentary is in fact based on a book by Ray Mears. A Brit TV presenter who knows a thing or two about survival techniques.
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| Taken from www.amazon.co.uk |
This is the book's blurb:
"Sixty years ago, four men parachuted onto a Norwegian glacier, carrying only the most basic equipment. Their mission was to prevent the Nazi regime from building an atomic bomb. Now wilderness expert Ray Mears tells the true story of this gruelling campaign, showing how these men's ability to survive in extreme conditions influenced the outcome of the Second World War. The Norwegians transformed a military disaster into a triumph. This book tells the full story for the first time."
Now my non-norwegian observation about Norwegians.
The discovery of this book and a BBC documentary makes me ask, once again, why Norway is so silent, or shy, or passive about their own accomplishments and heroes?
Locals will tell you the answser is called "Norwegian understatement." And I think there is part of that: Norwegians are uncomfortable bragging about themeselves.
But I am not persuaded that "understatement" fully explains Norwegian inability or unwillingess to tell the world in grander terms about their own heroes (e.g. right now the hottest international exhibit about the Norwegian painter Edward Munch is in London´s Tate Museum and I ask why not is it taking place at Oslo´s Munch Museum instead?)
To me it boils down to the power of a story. And ultimately great storytelling means mastering the power of seduction.
A country, an artist, anyone wanting to make something or someone universal - a story, a painting, a play - must create a story the world will not want to forget.
And what I learned during my time in London is that Brits are the ultimate storytellers. They create stories that hunt you. Words that never leave you. Biographies that you want to hear again and again. That the BBC is British is no accident.
So back to Telemark, I am not entirely surprised that what is an amazing Made-in-Norway event became a Made-in-UK book plus documentary. And consistently with British fashion, both book and BBC video will try to hook you right with the get go "The Real Heroes of Telemark: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Stop Hitler's Atomic Bomb."
Now, that is how you turn something that happened once in a small village into a grand story of courage and survival!
