'The Great Escaper' Ensnared by PBS for U.S. Debut

Glenda Jackson's passing in mid-2023 was a tragic loss for the British stage and screen. The two-time Oscar-winner (in 1969 and 1973) had semi-retired from acting by the time the 21st century rolled around. She used her fame to further the progressive politics she believed in, serving as a Labour MP (Member of Parliament) for 23 years, from 1992 to 2015. However, she still made films here and there, including Elizabeth is Missing, which Masterpiece aired to kick off its 50th anniversary season. 

At the time of her death, she had recently completed filming on another project, the feature film The Great Escaper, where she teamed up with Michael Caine (The Ipcress File) on the true story of a WWII pensioner who broke out of his care home in 2014 to attend 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when the movie finally debuted in September 2024 in the U.K., Caine announced this would also be his final film and that he was officially retired.

It was a frustrating moment for Anglophiles. When the film premiered in the U.K., it still lacked American distribution, so the only way to see the final filmed performances of two British legends was via bootleg or VPN. Thankfully, PBS and Masterpiece have fixed that oversight and will debut the film in the U.S., both on-air and streaming, only arriving a year late. It is slated for sometime in the first half of the fall 2025 TV season.

Here's the synopsis:

“The Great Escaper” tells the true story of Bernard Jordan, who made global headlines in the summer of 2014. He staged a “great escape” from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, commemorating their fallen comrades at the D-Day Landings 70th anniversary. It was a story that captured the world's imagination as Bernie embodied the defiant, “can-do” spirit of a fast-disappearing generation. 

Of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was an inspirational but sanitized retelling of one man’s need to come to terms with the lasting trauma of war. Bernie’s adventure, spanning a mere 48 hours, also marked the culmination of his 60-year marriage to Rene—“The Great Escaper” celebrates their enduring love but always with an eye to the lessons we might learn from the Greatest Generation.

Caine and Jackson co-star as the real-life couple Bernard and Irene (Rene) Jordan. Will Fletcher (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) and Laura Marcus (The Devil's Hour) play the couple in their younger years in the WWII flashbacks. 

The rest of the ensemble includes John Standing (The Crown), Jackie Clune (Motherland), Danielle Vitalis (I May Destroy You), Brennan Reece (Skins), Wolf Kahler (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), Ian Conningham (Outlander), Elliott Norman (Grantchester), Donald Sage Mackay (The Regime), Stephen Leask (Trigger Point), Carlyss Peer (Dalgliesh), and Victor Oshin (Black Ops).

William Ivory penned the script for The Great Escaper, which Oliver Parker directed. Douglas Rae & Robert Bernstein are executive producers, along with Pathé and BBC Films. The film is an Ecosse Film production made in co-production with Film I Väst and Filmgate Films.

The Great Escaper will premiere on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel in the fall of 2025, probably closer to American Thanksgiving and the December holidays. It will almost certainly begin streaming on PBS Passport for members the same day.