Toby Jones

Actor Toby Jones uncovers the remarkable World War II stories of his maternal grandparents, Reggie and Dorki, whose love endured despite the trauma and hardships they faced. He learns about his grandmother’s dramatic escape from the Nazis in Northern France, and solves the family mystery of how his grandfather was shot while fighting the Japanese.

Actor Toby Jones sits down with his mother, Jennifer, and two aunts, Juliet and Caroline, to learn what they know about the wartime experiences of his grandparents, Reggie and Dorki. They married in 1940 at age 21, and Reggie was almost immediately sent to the Far East to fight the Japanese. When he returned home, he was not the same patient man he was before — which they now recognize as PTSD.

Actor Toby Jones meets Professor Anselm Heinrich in Béthune, France — at the very theater where his grandmother, Dorki, performed in 1940. She was part of ENSA, the Entertainment National Service Association, which staged shows to raise the spirits of hundreds of thousands of British troops during the height of World War II.