''Czas honoru'' (English: Days of Honour) is a Polish

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

television drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

, broadcast on

TVP2 TVP 2 (TVP Dwa, ''Program II Telewizji Polskiej'', ''"Dwójka"'') is a Polish public mainstream TV channel operated by TVP. Launched in October 1970, its varied line-up contains a variety of programming (documentary, history, talk-shows, game-sh ...

since 7 September 2008 to 23 November 2014, on

STV Glasgow STV Glasgow was a British local television station serving Glasgow and surrounding areas. The station was owned and operated by STV Group plc in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University. The channel was closed on Sunday 23 April 2017 a ...

from 2 June 2014 and

STV Edinburgh STV Edinburgh was a British local television channel based in Edinburgh which launched on 12 January 2015. It was owned and operated by STV Group plc in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University. The channel was closed on Sunday 23 April 20 ...

from 16 January 2015.

Plot

Set in German-occupied Poland 1939-1944 (series I, II, III and IV) and in post-war Poland 1945-1946 (series V and VI), the series tells a story of

Union of Armed Struggle Związek Walki Zbrojnej ( abbreviation: ''ZWZ''; Union of Armed Struggle;Thus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. also translated as ''Union for Armed Struggle'', ''Association of Armed Strug ...

Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

Armed Forces Delegation for Poland The Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (''Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj'') was a Polish anti-communist resistance organization formed on May 7, 1945, by the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, General Władysław Anders, as a conti ...

soldiers commonly referred to as ''

cichociemni ''Cichociemni'' (; the "Silent Unseen") were elite special-operations paratroopers of the Polish Army in exile, created in Great Britain during World War II to operate in occupied Poland (''Cichociemni Spadochroniarze Armii Krajowej''). Kazimierz ...

''. The script was inspired by the stories of Polish soldiers who during

underwent training in the UK in order to return to German-occupied Poland and partake in the underground struggle for independence. The series also touches upon the challenges faced by the German

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

organisation

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...

, the intelligence agency of the SS Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS (SD), the Nazi

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

commonly known as the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and the infiltration of the Union of Armed Struggle/Armia Krajowa by the Abwehr and the SD. The series also briefly covers the activities of the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (

GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...

) and the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

. Until 2013 six series of 13 episodes each were made. Series I, II and III take place in the spring, summer and autumn of 1941. Series IV covers the period from April to June 1944. The action takes place mainly in Warsaw, including the Warsaw Ghetto, however some parts of the series are set in other areas of the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

, as well as England, Italy and the Third Reich. Series V tells the story of the final period of World War II and shortly after its end, from April to June 1945, and is set in the newly instated

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and the American zone of the Allied-occupied

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The action of series I to VI unfolds in the chronological order. Series VII, however, takes it back to 1944 and shows the events of the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

, the 70th anniversary of which were celebrated in 2014.

Cast

* Jan Wieczorkowski as Władek Konarski * Antoni Pawlicki as Janek Markiewicz *

Maciej Zakościelny Maciej Gracjan Zakościelny (born 7 May 1980, Stalowa Wola) is a Polish film, television and theatre actor. Life and career He was born on 7 May 1980 in Stalowa Wola. In 2004, he began his studies at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy ...

as Bronek Wojciechowski *

Jakub Wesołowski Jakub Wesołowski, also known as Kuba Wesołowski, (born 7 May 1985, Warsaw) is a Polish film, television and theatre actor as well as journalist. Life and career He was born on 7 May 1985 in Warsaw. He is a graduate of the Marie Curie-Skłodows ...

as Michał Konarski * Krystian Wieczorek as Martin Halbe (series 1 to 3) *

Piotr Adamczyk Piotr Aleksander Adamczyk (; born March 21, 1972) is a Polish film, television, voice and theatre actor. He is known for portraying pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin in the biographical film ''Chopin: Desire for love'' (2002), Pope John Pau ...

as Lars Rainer (from series 2) * Katarzyna Gniewkowska as Maria Konarska *

Jan Englert Jan Aleksander Englert (born 11 May 1943) is a Polish film actor. He has appeared in more than 60 films since 1957. Since 2003 he has served as Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Warsaw, National Theatre in Warsaw. Biography In 1957 ...

as Czesław Konarski (series 1) *

Robert Gonera Robert Gonera is a Polish film, stage and television actor. He played leading roles in Krzysztof Krauze's political drama ''Street Games'' and the thriller '' The Debt'', for which he received Best Actor at the Polish Film Awards:Eagles. He bec ...

as Aleksey Dykov (series 4) *

Maja Ostaszewska Maja Ostaszewska (born 3 September 1972) is a Polish actress. Biography She was born in Kraków, the daughter of Polish musician Jacek Ostaszewski, of the Ostoja Clan. Ostaszewska was raised Buddhist. She started her acting training in her n ...

(series 1) and

Magdalena Różczka Magdalena Różczka (born 27 July 1978 in Nowa Sól) is a Polish actress. She appeared in the comedy television series ''Bao-Bab, czyli zielono mi'' in 2003. In May 2010 she was appointed as the UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador Goodwill am ...

(from series 2) as Wanda Ryszkowska * Agnieszka Więdłocha as Lena Sajkowska * Piotr Żurawski as Romek Sajkowski *

Krzysztof Globisz Krzysztof Maria Globisz (born 16 January 1957 in Siemianowice Śląskie) is a Polish theatre and film actor. His best-known role is as Piotr Balicki, the newly qualified barrister whose opinion of capital punishment undergoes a radical change in ...

as Leon Sajkowski (series 1 to 3) *

Anna Romantowska Anna Romantowska (born 16 May 1950) is a Polish film and theatre actress. She has been married to the Polish actor and director Krzysztof Kolberger With Kolberger she has a daughter, the Polish actress Julia Kolberger. In 1974 she graduated fr ...

as Sabina Sajkowska (series 1 to 3) * Ewa Wencel as Helena * Karolina Gorczyca as Wiktoria "Ruda" Rudnicka

Episodes

Series 1 Episode 1 Spring 1941. A small division of Polish soldiers are completing their training in England and are about to be parachuted back to occupied Poland in order to carry out sabotage actions against the Germans. The members of the division are: Czesław Konarski, major of the Polish Armed Forces; his two sons - Władek, sportsman and lieutenant of the Polish Armed Forces, and Michał, medical student; Jan Markiewicz, an architecture graduate from Praga in Warsaw, and Bronek Woyciechowski - before the war the only heir to the fortune of a Warsaw businessman. In the meantime the Gestapo are setting a trap...

Production

Reception

The series broadcast by

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s. Sinc ...

enjoyed huge popularity in Poland and the licence to screen it has been purchased by broadcasters in Italy, China,Polish WWII Drama Series Bought by Italian and Chinese TV
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Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

References

External links

{{commons category
The series available to watch online for free at VOD.pl (in Polish)

TVP Distribution - "Days of Honor"Questions of honour
''The Economist'', Nov 18th 2010 2008 Polish television series debuts Polish drama television series World War II television drama series Television shows set in Poland Television series set in the 20th century Military television series 2000s Polish television series 2010s Polish television series 2014 Polish television series endings Telewizja Polska original programming