# The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)

> A five-part BBC dramatization of Anne Frank's wartime diary, following her family's years in hiding from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/26144

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 5
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, history
- Created by: Deborah Moggach
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Ellie Kendrick, Kate Ashfield, Iain Glen, Tamsin Greig, Felicity Jones, Geoffrey Breton, Ron Cook, Lesley Sharp
- TMDB rating: 7.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127205/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: slow
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: intimate, melancholic, restrained, tense, hopeful

## What critics say

Audiences broadly rated this faithful, intimate adaptation of Anne Frank's diary positively, praising its sensitive handling of the family's confinement.

## Synopsis

The Diary of Anne Frank (2009) is a British five-part miniseries created by Deborah Moggach for BBC One, a historical drama adapted from the famous wartime diary. Ellie Kendrick plays Anne Frank, a lively teenager whose written record anchors the story, alongside Iain Glen as her father Otto Frank, Tamsin Greig as her mother Edith Hollander-Frank, and Kate Ashfield as Miep Gies, the helper who brings food and news to the hidden rooms. The engine of the series is the daily struggle to stay unseen: a family and another household share a concealed annex in occupied Amsterdam, and every quarrel, rumor and knock at the door carries the threat of discovery by the Nazis. Each of the five half-hour episodes moves through the cramped rhythms of waiting, small rebellions, shared meals and Anne's private hopes for the world beyond the walls. The tone is intimate, restrained and quietly devastating, a confined domestic drama where ordinary youthful longing stands against historical catastrophe. Set in 1940s Amsterdam during the German occupation, it is a grounded, single-location story with a steady emotional pull. Viewers of Holocaust and Band of Brothers will find resonance in its sober treatment of wartime ordeal and its focus on human endurance.

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