A happy-go-lucky bunch of British prisoners in a German POW camp during World War II discover that their new acerbic fellow prisoner is high-ranking British aeronautical scientist Sir Ernest Pease (James Robertson Justice) who they must help escape at all cost.
The cast includes some of the most popular names in contemporary British cinema, including Leslie Phillips and Jeremy Lloyd as upper-class “tally-ho chaps” comic relief, Eric Sykes as a keep-fit fanatic, and Stanley Baxter playing dual roles as a temperamental Scottish prisoner and the unpleasant Nazi Kommandant.
Sir Ernest Pease KBE FRS/Lt. Farrow RN
James Robertson Justice Flying Officer Jimmy Cooper DFC
Leslie Phillips ‘Jock’ Everett/Kommandant Stamfel
Stanley Baxter Willoughby, Sports Officer
Eric Sykes Woodcock, Entertainments Officer
Richard Wattis Godfrey Winn
Himself Briggs
Colin Gordon Piggott, Escape Officer
John Le Mesurier Travers, Senior British Officer
Norman Bird Flt Lt. ‘Bonzo’ Baines DFC
Jeremy Lloyd ‘Grassy’ Green
John Forrest Shaw
Peter Myers Hankley
Ronnie Stevens Clynes
Ronald Leigh-Hunt
