Selling Hitler is a 1991 ITV television comedy-drama mini-series about the Hitler Diaries hoax and was based on Robert Harris's 1986 book Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries.
Over the next two years, Heidemann and the senior management figures at Stern secretly pay DM 9.3 million to a mysterious "Dr Fischer" (Alexei Sayle) for the sixty volumes of Hitler's diaries, covering the period from 1932 to 1945, plus a special volume about the flight of Rudolf Hess to the United Kingdom. Some of the money is made as payment to "Dr Fischer", but the larger proportion goes into Heidemann's pocket to finance his extravagant lifestyle and collection of World War IImemorabilia, including the yacht of Hermann Göring.
To the dismay of all, including eminent historians such as Hugh Trevor-Roper (Alan Bennett), who had verified the diaries as authentic, it is discovered after the publication of the first extract that the diaries are crude forgeries by Stuttgart criminal Konrad Kujau.
Cast
The five-part series was directed by Alastair Reid and starred:
