True Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai

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History, War Documentary hosted by Edward Woodward and published by A&E, BBC broadcasted as part of BBC Timewatch series in 1997 - English narration

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The 1957 film Bridge on the River Kwai won six Academy Awards and may be the most famous and celebrated war movie ever made. But while the story of the collaboration of a British officer and his Japanese captors was the perfect way to illustrate "the great joke of war," it also horrified the POWs who lived through the experience on which the movie was based.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI interviews former POWs and guards to reveal what really happened, and how the "collaborating" officer, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey, was a hero, not a traitor. As on soldier recalls, "he was always there to stand between us and the brutality of the Japs." His inspired leadership was the primary reason why only nine of his soldiers died during the construction of the bridge (compared to 16,000 on the Thai-Burma railway overall) and his humanity likely saved the Japanese overseer of the prison camp from execution after the war!

While he refused to speak of the ordeal during his life, Toosey left behind more than 50 hours of tapes detailing his wartime experiences. For the first time, we hear his side of what happened in his own words.