'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.