Diary of Anne Frank, The (BBC-1 2009, Ellie Kendrick, Iain Glen)

This five part dramatisation of Anne Frank’s poignant memoir was stripped across the week.

It is June 1942 and Amsterdam is under Nazi occupation in this BBC dramatisation by Deborah Moggach of The Diary Of Anne Frank. Anne, a Jewish girl, is celebrating her 13th birthday with her family and friends. Among her birthday presents, she is given a diary in which she starts to write immediately. Days later, call-up papers arrive for her 16-year-old sister, Margot, prompting her parents, Otto and Edith, to hasten their plan to go into hiding from the Nazis.

The family move into a secret annex at the back of Otto Franks’s workplace. The Franks’s helpers, Mr Kleiman, Mr Kugler, Bep and Miep, are the only people to know of their location and they risk their own lives to help them survive.

The Franks are soon joined by another family, Mr and Mrs Van Daan, and their teenage son, Peter. Anne doesn’t think much of Peter but decides she must try and be pleasant to him to keep the peace. She writes more and more in her birthday diary, detailing life in the annex and her feelings about her companions.

production details
UK / BBC One / 5×30 minute episodes / Broadcast Monday 5 – Friday 9 January weeknights at 7.00pm

Writer: Deborah Moggach / Script Supervisor: Tess Malone / Music: Charlie Mole / Director of photography: Ian Moss / Art director: Sophia Stapleton / Production Design: Luana Hanson / Executive producer: John Smithson / Producer: Elinor Day / Director: Jon Jones

cast
Ellie Kendrick as Anne Frank
Kate Ashfield as Miep Gies
Ron Cook as Hermann Van Daan
Geoff Breton as Petert Van Daan
Tim Dantay as Mr Kugler
Roger Frost as Mr Kleiman
Iain Glen as Otto Frank
Tamsin Greig as Edith Frank
Felicity Jones as Margot Frank
Lesley Sharp as Petronella Van Daan
Nicholas Farrell as Albert Dussel
Mariah Gale as Bep Voskuijl