Coventry Blitz - in Fiction and Drama

In Fiction and Drama

• A Gathering of Saints, Christopher Hyde. A London serial killer is tracked to Coventry on the night of the big raid. ULTRA intelligence figures in the plot.
• One Night in November, play by Alan Pollock (premiered at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre in March 2008). A Bletchley Park codebreaker must decide whether to reveal his foreknowledge of the raid to his lover from Coventry. The play repeats the Churchill/Coventry myth, though Churchill does not appear in person in the play.
• Blitzcat, novel by Robert Westall. A vivid depiction of the bombing from the perspective of the titular character.
• Babylon 5 television series, episode In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum. Captain Sheridan, Babylon 5's commander, in a discussion of "how much is a secret worth", repeats the Churchill/Coventry myth.
• Spooks, BBC television series. In one episode, the Churchill/Coventry myth is repeated to justify allowing a known bomb to detonate.
• Sherlock, BBC television series. In the episode entitled A Scandal in Belgravia the Churchill/Coventry myth is again repeated.
• The Facts of Life, Graham Joyce. Set in Coventry just after World War II, the novel follows the unstable life of a young man who represents the next generation of a family that may have psychic powers. Parts of the novel follow his mother's activities on the night of the November 14 bombing; others deal with the post-war rebuilding.
• To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis. An Oxford time-travel laboratory sends a team to pre-blitz Coventry to look for artefacts destroyed in the bombing.
• To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Robert Heinlein. A group of time-travellers go to Coventry on the night of the second major raid (5/6 April 1941), to provide medical assistance, shoot down German bombers with futuristic weapons, and retrieve a man who is father and grandfather of two of them.
• The Last Colony, John Scalzi The attack on Coventry and Churchill's knowledge is referenced as a justification to allow an alien attack on a human colony. The foreknowledge is revealed as a myth later in the book
• Foyle's War, Series 3, Episode "A War of Nerves" Lucinda Sheraton Neé Rose, says "We were in Coventry . . ." referring to the Coventry Blitz and its aftermath.
• The Coventry Option, novel by Anthony Burton. A historial thriller in which IRA terrorists help the Nazis to bomb Coventry by planting clandestine radio transmitters in the city.