In this episode I’d like you to meet two celebrities – one human and one animal.
I’m talking to Tomek Borkowy, a renowned Polish actor, who has lived in Scotland since the early 1980s. In Poland, he played the leading part of Andrzej Talar in “Dom” (The Home), a television drama showing the post war times in Poland. It became Poland’s biggest and most popular television series to date with over 15 million viewers for each episode. In the UK he has worked as an actor, director, producer, theatre manager, agent and drama teacher. He worked on hundreds of theatre and film projects and was involved in the famous Edinburgh theatre festival the Fringe from 1990 until 2017. Tomek Borkowy is a proud Polish Scot – he loves Scotland and has been deeply involved in studying Polish-Scottish history. He is involved in The Scottish-Polish Heritage Trust.
And here comes the second celebrity featured in this episode. I spoke to Tomek about Wojtek the Bear, a four-legged WW2 hero, who had no idea he wasn’t human because he was adopted as a cub and raised by the Polish soldiers. He carried ammunition and helped soldiers during the famous Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, . Wojtek was later officially enlisted as a soldier, the rank of private, and subsequently became a corporal. After the Polish army was dismantled, Wojtek ended up in Edinburgh Zoo, where he died at the age of 22.
This is not the first time we are talking about Wojtek – on Episode 3 of Polcast 8 years ago (in 1916) we featured Wojtek’s story “The four-legged soldier”. There you can find numerous videos. Also, here there are more videos, including some more recent ones.
In the interview Tomek Borkowy and I discuss a new animated film titled “A Bear Named Wojtek”. Here is its trailer:
and a video where its director Iain Gardner discusses the film:
The statue of Wojtek in Edinburgh (from Tomek Borkowy’s collection):
The excerpts in this episode come from this video by Polish Scottish Heritage Project:
To learn more about The Anders Army, we recommend Irene Tomaszewski’s review of Norman Davies’ book “Trail of Hope: The Anders Army, an Odyssey Across Three Continents“ in the online magazine Cosmopolitan Review.
British songwriter and singer Katy Carr, “a British singer who sings about Polish history”, featured in Episode 4 in 2016, released a music video called ‘Wojtek,’ on 17 September 2014 – the 75th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.
More info:
Wojtek the Bear, Britannica
Scotland and Poland: for Auld Lang Syne
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Since 2011 the public has voted for the European Tree of the Year. This year’s winner is a Polish majestic 200-year-old beech. The Polish beech “Heart of Garden” won the hearts of Europeans. It’s Poland’s 4th victory! About the contest. You can also read about the Polish winner HERE.