Martin Webb, a fellow Colditz Society member and a chap with a keen eye for a Colditz story, recenty spotted the following in the “Gloucester Citizen” newspaper.
Martin points out a couple of mistakes in the story:
1. Michael only met Hiter in a restaurant, he didn’t interview him;
2. The north Wales town near where he lives is Porthmadog not Port Maddock.
LINK:
‘I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT MY LIFE WOULD MAKE A GOOD FILM’
Date : 02.05.08
He Started out as a Citizen reporter, but since then Michael Burn has had a life set to be the stuff of Hollywood legend. In a career that has spanned 50 years, he has endured a spell imprisoned in Colditz, interviewed Adolf Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.
Now the 95-year-old’s extraordinary life will be immortalised after a Hollywood producer acquired the rights to his autobiography, Turned Towards the Sun, published in 2003.
“I always thought that my life was rather interesting and would make a good film but the interest from the Americans still came out of the blue” Mr Burn said.
“For me the real sense of achievement came when I finished my book, it was something I had always wanted to do and I’m very proud of it.
“The film interest is a wonderful bonus and something I am very happy about.”
The movie will focus on Mr Burn’s war years when he served as a captain of the commandos in the heroic and bloody raid on the docks of St Nazaire in western France in March 1942.
Despite being wounded - and after every man in his boat was killed - he helped other men to safety and fought his way to a rendezvous point, before being captured and eventually sent to Colditz.
At Colditz, Mr Burn used his skills as a journalist to help to operate the secret radio, writing down dispatches in shorthand that he then relayed to the other PoWs.
The film - to be produced by Robert Ozn - will be a cross between Saving Private Ryan, The Dirty Dozen and Brideshead Revisited.
A second movie - again using Mr Burn’s autobiography - will also been made focusing more heavily on St Nazaire itself.
Born into privilege, Mr Burn was the son of Sir Clive Burn, secretary and to solicitor to the Duchy of Cornwall.
He began his career as a journalist on The Citizen in 1924. During his 18-month spell at the newspaper he was sent on a six-week assignment to report on Hitler’s Germany where he attended a Nazi party rally at Nuremberg. He even met the Fuehrer thanks to his friend Unity Mitford, the English aristocrat and Nazi sympathiser who shot herself when Britain declared war on Germany.
He said: “I was fascinated by Hitler and National Socialism. Unemployment in Gloucester, and all over England, was very high at the time and I had been told that Hitler had all but eradicated it in Germany.
“Sadly I am ashamed to say I was taken in by National Socialism and Hitler for a short while. Luckily I was soon brought to my senses when I read the truth by journalists in England and America.
“I have spent the rest of my life attempting to correct this terrible blot on my history.”
After he left The Citizen, Mr Burn - who now lives in Port Maddock, North Wales - became a distinguished foreign correspondent and eventually joined The Times in 1936 - but still has plenty of fond memories of his time in Gloucestershire.
“It was my first real role within journalism and it was a time in my life that I enjoyed very much.
“The editor at the time, Mr Bell, was very supportive to me and encouraged me to go on and become a foreign correspondent, which I thankfully did - it was a wonderful time for me.”
Casting has yet to begin for the film but Jude Law is rumoured to head of actors in line for the lead role.
Mr Burn added: “I have no idea yet who is in line to play me but it’s something I am looking forward to finding out about.”