The Promise

From the producers of the Emmy-nominated dramas ENDGAME and THE HAMBURG CELL, comes THE PROMISE, a new political thriller set in contemporary Israel and British Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Second World War. Told in two time frames, the contemporary story focuses on ERIN; an impressionable, somewhat naïve and, on the surface, not... More »

From the producers of the Emmy-nominated dramas ENDGAME and THE HAMBURG CELL, comes THE PROMISE, a new political thriller set in contemporary Israel and British Occupied Palestine in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Told in two time frames, the contemporary story focuses on ERIN; an impressionable, somewhat naïve and, on the surface, not entirely sympathetic 18 year old British girl on her gap year.

About to depart to spend the summer with her best friend ELIZA, who has joint British/Israeli nationality, ERIN is first dragged by her mother to visit her grandfather LEN, who lies dying in hospital. ERIN is not close to him and remains distant and unmoved as he lies silently in a coma.

But it is when ERIN discovers LEN’S diary, which she begins to read en route to Israel, that her grandfather’s extraordinary past begins to unfold.

LEN’s story begins during the last days of the Second World War when, as a member of an advanced unit of British troops, he arrives at the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen and is confronted with the horrors that lay within. With these harrowing images still burning in his mind, Len is sent to Palestine, charged with keeping the peace between the indigenous Arabs and traumatised Jews arriving in their thousands by boat from post-Holocaust Europe. Len feels an intense sympathy for the plight of these pitiful refugees and their desire for a place of sanctuary, a homeland. He expects that his peacekeeping duties will be a gentle conclusion to his bloody military career. But for Len and his friends the war is very far from over.

ERIN, now in modern-day Israel, is warmly welcomed by Eliza’s family. With time on her hands, sitting by the pool in the sun while Eliza trains for her military service, Erin becomes increasingly absorbed by her grandfather’s story, set out graphically in his diary. She learns that he ended his time in Palestine in a military prison and determines to find out why. She begins to retrace his steps, embarking on a journey that will take her outside the secure bubble of the prosperous Jewish suburb where Eliza lives.

Arriving in 1945 Palestine, Len and his comrades soon find their sympathy for the plight of the Jews tested as they come under sustained attack from the Irgun, a Jewish militant organisation determined to drive Len and his 100,000 fellow British soldiers into the sea. Blown up in the King David Hotel, escaping kidnap only to find his two fellow detainees hanged in an orange grove; Len finds his sympathy slowly shifting. But, just as his attitudes are in flux, Len falls in love with Clara, a Jewish girl his age from Berlin and a concentration camp survivor, now trying to make a new home for herself and her father in the nascent Jewish state.

THE PROMISE is an epic and gripping political thriller that examines the origins of the Middle East conflict in events that took place under British rule just sixty years ago. It draws parallels between the violence faced by British occupational forces in the 1940s and the attacks faced by Israel’s military in the 21st century, finding surprising echoes of Britain’s responses to attack sixty years ago in the tactics in use today. It’s a love story that spans the ages and an antidote to simplistic thought.

EPISODE 1

Claire Foy and Christian Cooke lead an international cast, including Itay Tiran, Haaz Sleiman, Ali Sulaiman and Perdita Weeks, in Peter Kosminsky's new four-part drama serial.
Just as 18-year-old Londoner Erin sets off to spend summer in Israel with her best friend, Eliza, she unearths an old diary belonging to her seriously ill grandfather, Len. Intrigued by the life of this old man she barely knows, she takes the diary with her, and is stunned to learn of his part in the post-WWII British peace-keeping force in what was then Palestine.
Left to her own devices when Eliza begins National Service in the Israeli army, Erin witnesses the complexities of life - for both Jews and Arabs - in this troubled land. And as Len's story comes to life from the pages of the diary, Erin discovers the disturbing truths about his time in Palestine and the atrocities he witnessed in the 1940s.
Retracing Len's steps in modern-day Israel, Erin sets out on a heart-breaking journey in an effort to understand and fulfil a promise made by her grandfather over 60 years ago.

EPISODE 2

The episode begins in 1940s Palestine, where Len meets Abu-Hassan Mohammed, an Arab charwallah working for the British Army. Len is appalled to see how Mohammed is treated by some of the soldiers as he attempts to serve tea, so he intervenes to discipline them. A friendship grows between the two men after the incident.
In modern Israel, Erin is experiencing the aftermath of the attack on a café by a Palestinian suicide bomber. She decides to leave Israel at the earliest opportunity, but first she reads the end of Len's diary and is shocked by what she discovers. Despite the trauma of the café bombing, Erin resolves to stay in Israel while she delves deeper into her grandfather's story.

EPISODE 3

Len is lying in hospital, being treated for his injuries after his unit has been under attack in Haifa. When he recovers, he goes to see Mohammed and spends some time teaching his son Hassan geometry. Len also visits his Jewish lover Clara before rejoining his unit.
The soldiers prepare for a highly sensitive military operation against the Irgun, but their secret plans are betrayed, with appalling consequences for Len and his men.
Reading these dramatic events, Erin is even more determined to resolve the mystery surrounding the fate of Len and his charwallah friend Mohammed.
In search of Mohammed's family, she travels alone to the West Bank. But once there she arouses suspicion and is arrested by Israeli soldiers.

EPISODE 4 - FINAL

In the final episode, Erin refuses to abandon her quest to find Mohammed's family, even though it takes her on a hazardous journey into Gaza.
Len's diary records how, in 1947, Jews take to the streets celebrating the British decision to withdraw from Palestine. A crucial vote at the UN means their own state is finally within their grasp.
In Haifa the mass exodus of Arabs has started and Len fears for the safety of Mohammed, his son Hassan, and their family. He exhorts them to abandon their home and leave the city by boat. Mohammed reluctantly agrees and Len takes them to the port but in the chaos at the dock gates, something unexpected happens. In an effort to make things right, Len makes a promise to Mohammed: a promise that will ultimately determine the fate of both their lives.

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