History Series / EnemyAtTheDoor

''Enemy at the Door'' is an Creator/{{ITV}} drama series that ran from 1978 to 1980. It was set on the Channel Island of Guernsey during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and opens in June 1940 as the island is occupied by German forces. It consists of a mixture of one-off stories and ongoing plotlines exploring the difficulties of life in occupied territory.

* DancesAndBalls: "After the Ball" revolves around a ball held by the Germans in the hope of promoting good relations with the locals (or at least of getting some photos that can be used as propaganda claiming good relations with the locals). It inspires Marie Weston to rebel against her OverprotectiveDad and try to have a social life of her own, with what might be charitably described as mixed results.

* OverprotectiveDad: In "After the Ball", John Weston supervises his teenaged daughter's social life very closely, and has never let her had any kind of unchaperoned contact with the opposite sex. When she takes an opportunity to slip away and have a good time on her own initiative, it goes badly, at least partly because her sheltered upbringing has left her unprepared for what might go wrong.

The main point-of-view characters are the Martel family. Philip Martel (Bernard Horsfall) is a local doctor, and in the first episode he is invited to be the medical representative on the Controlling Committee that will run the island's civilian government services and liaise between the Germans and the local population. As the series progresses he also gets involved in other goings-on either because his professional services are required or because the people involved are family friends. The Porteous family, local land-owners, are also regulars; Martel's daughter Clare and Helen Porteous' son Peter are romantically involved, and occasionally collaborate on acts of resistance against the occupiers.

Deciding what constitutes correct behaviour in the circumstances is shown to be a disputed issue among the Germans as well as among the locals. Regularly-appearing German officers include Major Richter (Alfred Burke), the garrison commander of the occupying forces on Guernsey; Major Freidel (Simon Lack), the feldkommandant (governor of the occupied territory); Hauptsturmführer Reinicke (Simon Cadell), the ranking SS officer on the island; and Oberleutnant Kluge (John Malcolm), who brings peacetime experience as a police detective to his role keeping (the German interpretation of) law and order. The second season introduces Generalmajor Müller, the commander of all German forces in the islands, and sees Richter and Reinicke RankUp.

* {{Fainting}}: In "The Polish Affaire", Lady Diana Prideux faints dead away on finding an escaped prisoner hiding in her garden shed. When she recovers, it turns out that he's not just any escaped prisoner, but a man she loved and lost before the war.

* YourCheatingHeart: "The Polish Affaire" revolves around a couple who have to deal with the sudden and unexpected reappearance in their lives of a friend from before the War who was secretly carrying on an affair with the wife. It turns out in the end that the husband knew about the affair all along, and chose not to make an issue of it, but finds that it complicates his motives in dealing with the present situation.