This trailer for a 1985 Network Ten mini-series The Dunera Boys dramatises a major mistake in Second World War history, leaning into fraught drama and moments of surprising comedy.

Feared to be spies and ‘enemy aliens’, a group of Australian and German Jewish refugees were deported by Winston Churchill to remote Australian internment camps. Though the graveness of the situation is laid out by the trailer’s narrator, the clips embrace its latent absurdity.

Presenting a clash of cultures, the trailer for The Dunera Boys draws on the fact that many of the internees were artists, philosophers, writers and scientists. The broad Aussie snark of the guards is pitted against the worldly flair of the European: the energy of cabaret, drag and choir groups eventually excites the established status quo.

Written and directed by Ben Lewin, the series depicts the hardships and bonds of brotherhood of those aboard the HMT Dunera, and a significant passage in Jewish history in Australia.