PICK OF TODAY’S TV

STEPHEN FRY: WILLEM & FRIEDA — DEFYING THE NAZIS, 9PM, CH4

STEPHEN FRY celebrates two unsung Dutch heroes of the Resistance during the Second World War. As the t Nazis occupied the Netherlands, a group of creatives came together to channel their energies into fighting back. Two of them — artist and painter Willem Arondeus and cellist Frieda Belinfante — are unlikely to be names you have heard of before. Fry himself was unaware una of their stories: ‘I knew nothing and I was slightly ashamed, but one of the things that so excited me was that a lot of Dutch people weren’t aware of them either.’ But Arondeus and Belinfante helped to save Jews from the death camps through their artistic skill and courage, and their small acts of protest grew over time. One fateful night, their ultimate act was to blow up the information registry office. Crucially, their mission was conducted with care for there to be no loss of life, only to destroy documents that would condemn Jews to the death camps. Willem and Frieda’s stories are full of risk, danger and adventure, but also, inevitably, of sadness. Both of them were gay, and Stephen wants that to be remembered — to him, their lives as a gay man and a lesbian woman are as much a part of their story as their heroism, selflessness and sacrifice. ‘Above all,’ he says, ‘I was fascinated by these two incredible people.’