As we enter into the small-town life of a German family in the Hunsrück region, we also experience the impact of a tumultuous history - the end of the Kaiserreich, the unstable Weimar Republic and the brief but dazzling 'Golden Twenties', the deepening economic crisis, the brutal clashes between Communists and Nazis, the 12 years of Nazi tyranny and the Holocaust, the final collapse, and then the reconstruction after 1945, culminating in reunification in 1989.

In the course of the three series, such is the reality and humanity of the characters, so closely do we identify and sympathise with them that we even begin to feel 'part of the family'. I am especially looking forward to the sections dealing with the building of the Wall in 1961, which brings alive the divided Germany I knew so well, and then the miracle of German reunification.

This film enables us to share in the experience and suffering of a history that is not only German, but European, and at the same time shows that German history cannot just be reduced to the years 1933-45. I warmly recommend Heimat and hope it will be seen and enjoyed by a very wide British audience.