#Suzanna Hamilton

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Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

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JULIA and WINSTON in 1984 (1984) | dir. Michael Radford

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Endless list of ships: Colin Beale/Matty Firman (Wish Me Luck LWT 1988).

"Never slept with anyone I liked before." // "Well, I've never slept with anyone whose name I didn't know."

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1984 (1984)

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George Orwell's book "1984" and the movie "V for vendetta" are basically the same story, and the scariest thing is that they are not that far from our reality

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Jeremy Northam as Colin Beale in Wish Me Luck episode 1.5 (LWT 1988).

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Suzanna Hamilton and Jeremy Northam as Matty Firman and Colin Beale in Wish Me Luck 1.2 (LWT 1988).

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1984 (1984)

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Matty Firman (Suzanna Hamilton) and Colin Beale (Jeremy Northam) in Wish Me Luck S1 (LWT 1988).

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Suzanna Hamilton and Jeremy Northam as Matty Firman and Colin Beale in Wish Me Luck 1.2 (LWT 1988).

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Suzanna Hamilton and Jeremy Northam as Matty Firman and Colin Beale in Wish Me Luck 1.3 (LWT 1988).

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1984 (1984)

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Matty (Suzanna Hamilton) and Colin (Jeremy Northam) about to be caught by German soldiers in the middle of a radio transmission to London in Wish Me Luck (1.6, LWT 1988).

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Suzanna Hamilton & Jeremy Northam as Matty Firman & Colin Beale in Wish Me Luck episode 1.5 (LWT, 1988).

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Article from the Reading Evening Post 14th january 1988 p2, featuring an interview with Suzanna Hamilton about the TV series Wish Me Luck.

WARS make heroes. Throughout history most of them have been men. It has been the fate of women to weep and wait—and ultimately suffer all the more. Modern warfare and modern thinking changed all that. Suddenly it was possible for women to make an immense, brave and determining contribution to the war effort. Making bombs, sewing blankets, knitting socks was no longer all there was.

In the last war, the S.O.E. that rogue organisation committed to sabotage and subterfuge to confuse the enemy in Europe, recruited hundreds of women. Many of them were ordinary civilians called upon to fulfil extraordinary tasks with an extraordinary degree of courage. Their story has all too rarely been told - yet they remain the bravest, most selfless figures in a towering and complex tapestry of staunch patriotism and human valour. Now their light is being taken from behind the bushel of secrecy and allowed to shine forth in a revealing and moving drama series which gives some idea of the astonishing and unsung tasks they performed in the battle to free Europe from Nazism.

In 'Wish Me Luck' LWT have made a major drama series which deals with the exploits of just two 'typical' S.O.E. agents—different, very different from each other but examples of the wide-ranging types of women drawn into the battle for freedom.

One is Liz; mother of a young child whose husband is already serving overseas. She has a comfortable middle class background, a mother with a large house in the country, a cosy life-style - and a desperate need to do more to help the war effort.

Then there is Matty; half French and Jewish, half Cockney—she opens her mouth before engaging her brain, is fearless and frighteningly enthusiastic, bright as a button but conscious of not being out of 'the right drawer'.

Between them, these two young women epitomise the wide net which was thrown across the civilian population to draw in all those with some skill to use, some enthusiasm to cash in on.

Playing Matty is a young actress who has already gained an enviable reputation with her name alongside some of the acting greats such as Richard Burton and John Hurt—not to mention rock star-turned thespian, Sting.

Suzanna Hamilton first made a name for herself when she was cast in the film of the children's classic 'Swallows and Amazons'. Subsequently came Wildcats of St Trinians - and then Brimstone and Treacle, 1983, and Out of Africa."It was Out of Africa which got me noticed by the producers of 'Wish Me Luck', says tomboyish Suzanna. "But I still had to go and be seen by a panel of about seven people. They took so long making their minds up that it was about two months before I got another call - I'd almost forgotten about it."

Taking on the role of Matty though proved to be unforgettable as Suzannah immersed herself in the brave history of the women of the S.O.E. and spent long hours talking to the series advisor Yvonne Cormeau - who was a real life wartime agent. She is now 77, yet Yvonne retains a vitality which gives some indication of the qualities she - and the many other recruits - must have had for the almost impossible tasks they were called upon to do.

"She was wonderful on all the details," says Suzannah, "and I have also read a lot about the period, before then I only knew a tiny bit about the 40s."

As Matty, Suzannah goes through some of the horrendous hardships that real-life S.O.E. agents had to suffer—but she knew only too well that, at the end, she could escape to a warm bed and a cup of coffee.

"There is one scene later in the series where I am being tortured by being held under a shower with a towel wrapped round my head—it was a way of torturing people so if they didn't talk they slowly drowned. While doing it I kept thinking about the women that it really happened to and how they must have felt—and I was only under there for 30 seconds."

The other incident which really tested Suzannah's courage was a rooftop scene which entailed her being carried through a high window by co-star Jeremy Northam.

"I'm a bit like Matty, a bit of a tomboy, often getting things wrong," Suzannah confesses, "but I've got no head for heights. On the roof—at the end of Chatham Docks - I suddenly got that horrible feeling of vertigo. I thought I was going to faint. Jeremy told me to just keep looking straight at him and not to look down. But it's not something I would have liked to do twice!"

The series also stars Cambridge graduate Kate Buffery as Liz and Julian Glover as Colonel James Cadogan. Jane Asher plays a tough, committed S.O.E. intelligence officer whose job it is to help recruit and look after the special agents and Warren Clarke is German SS Officer Colonel Krieger.