Ripping Yarns, Series1 Episode 3,"Escape From Stalag Luft 112B".
Major Errol Phipps is a "legend" among prisoners of war. He has attempted over 500 escapes,200 of them before he left England,accumulating 4 black-eyes along the way. One day in June 1917,therefore,he is transferred to the most infamous prison camp:Stalag Luft 112B.
The "Escape Committee" meets only irregularly and is content to comfortably "sit around on their arses until the war is over".
So Phipps starts to construct a glider made out of toilet rolls,maps the wires and perimeters and begins digging tunnels in the flower beds. After nearly discovering the 'real tunnel' that the German guards are digging,because they want to escape too,he is put in solitary confinement.
On his release back to camp he finds that all the other prisoners have successfully escaped and that the guards are also escaping through their tunnel. The fleeing Kommandant is "accidentally" shot!
All alone in the camp Phipps now has time to complete all his escape plans. He finishes his glider, builds a giant catapult "that could fling him 200 miles across occupied Europe", starts constructing a hot air balloon "using only the little bits you peel off Elastoplast before sticking it on" and digs a tunnel system "so elaborate that it later became part of the Munich underground"!
But then tragedy strikes,peace is declared on 11th November 1918 and Major Phipps "was the only man never to have escaped from Stalag Luft 112B"!
He returns to England but dies a broken man within 3 months. 2 years after his burial,a hole is found dug from his grave to the cemetery fence: Phipps final escape was his "greatest"!