Tenko 1981

Based on real-life experiences, Tenko remains one of the most fondly remembered and acclaimed BBC dramas of the early 1980s. It follows a group of women, formerly comfortably well-off ex-pats living in Singapore, as they are captured by the Japanese during World War II.

  • Poster for Specials

    Specials

    1985

    1 episodes

    Specials of Tenko premiered on December 16, 1985.

  • Poster for Season 1

    Season 1

    1981

    10 episodes

    Season 1 of Tenko premiered on October 22, 1981.

    The first season, set in 1941-42, charts the drama from the women being captured and sent to live in squalor and deprivation in a Japanese POW camp.

  • Poster for Season 2

    Season 2

    1982

    10 episodes

    Season 2 of Tenko premiered on October 21, 1982.

    Season 2, set in 1942-43, began with the women on a long march to a new camp, where things seem much more luxurious at first, but they find they have troubles settling into the strange regime of their new home.

  • Poster for Season 3

    Season 3

    1984

    10 episodes

    Season 3 of Tenko premiered on October 7, 1984.

    The final season took up two years after the previous one, as the war drew to a close and the women were returned to their normal lives. Well, as normal as they could be after their imprisonment.