Muzz Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Sorry if it's been mentioned elsewhere but just noticed there's a two part documentary starting tonight on channel 4 about the Battle of Britain. Second show is live on Tuesday apparently showing the 'Big Wing' fly by. Looks like good stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnd Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Ta for the tip, recorder set. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 There was a nice bit of film showing some Hurricanes lined up in front of a group early Beaufighters in temperate camouflage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutch Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Bit disappointed this end with the show. We both felt that Dermot over powered it with constant interviews and not enough focused on the aircraft themselves. Maybe we were expecting a little more about the aircraft and should have expected Channel 4 to try and aim it at their general viewers who aren't Spitfire/aircraft nuts. Still, the shots of the aircraft and the sounds of the merlins and griffons caused the hairs to stand up on my arms. Maybe let the aircraft speak for themselves.... Unfortunately we were about 15 miles too far north to see any of the flypast (having to work also didn't help) but we are looking forward to the Duxford show on sunday.... Hutch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Wasn't bad but there was very little mention made of the Hurricane save for the abridged story of R4118's recovery from India. Nice cameo by the Blenheim. Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kunac-Tabinor Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 We tend to overlook the facf that it's the people who need to be remembered. If you feel it's otherwise - go find a mirror and take a VERY long hard look and ask yourself a few questions about your humanity. Beautiful though they are, Spits and Hurris were tools to do a job. No mother, or wife, or girlfriend, or daughter, or brother, or father, or son ever mourned the loss of a piece of kit. Ever. Jonners 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutch Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 We tend to overlook the facf that it's the people who need to be remembered. If you feel it's otherwise - go find a mirror and take a VERY long hard look and ask yourself a few questions about your humanity. Beautiful though they are, Spits and Hurris were tools to do a job. No mother, or wife, or girlfriend, or daughter, or brother, or father, or son ever mourned the loss of a piece of kit. Ever. Jonners Totally agree with you Jonners. My father served with the RAF as ground crew throughout 39-45 and I was always humbled by his stories and the immense pride he had right up until he died, and as a uniformed officer with the cadet force I wear his medals (inc MiD) at remembrance parades with a small tear in my eye. My feelings about the TV programme (and it was only a C4 TV programme, not really a documentary) was that after being billed as fabulous coverage of the BoB flypast, we didn't get a huge amount of screen time dedicated to the display. If you didn't live under the different flight paths or could get a day off work to get to see it the coverage just seemed to fall flat. Why didn't they spend more time looking at the reasoning behind the different routes and more on the people and airfields directly involved. Our biggest disappointment was with the choice of host/interviewer/interupter; surely an historian (the chap with Dermot would have been fabulous, or even Al Murray) could have led and informed the viewers more than Dermot who seemed to deliver in the same fashion as interviewing the people ejected from the big-brother house. Sorry, but that's how we saw it; so much potential but not quite getting off the ground. Hutch (another Oxfordshire resident) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy wood Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Enjoyed the C4 show tonight very much, especially the cockpit shots as the formation went over the needles, and there is no doubting Prince Harry's and Dermot O'Leary's enthusiasm, but the interviews were badly, badly editited Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Ogilvie Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Presenter was awful... For some reason Raymond Baxter popped into my head - he'd have been perfect! Iain 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomBigStu Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Agree, I agree, I do think Dermots pretty decent presenter, but the occasion is worthy of a real expert and enthusiast, james holland should have been the guy, then again should have been a big BBC 12 hour series presented by James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tango98 Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Very well put Jonners. Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daldroflas Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 I have just watched the C4 show and really enjoyed it. Loved the comment from the wonderful ATA veteran that she had 'only flown 400 Spitfires'. I'm sure they could produce a follow up program using more footage and interviews. For what was virtually a live shoot I think they did a good job. I hadn't known until I did some Googling today that I attended the same school in Eccles that Tom Neil did. Also that he did some flight training at Barton Airport. I used to live within a few hundred feet from its grass runway and have flown from there myself. I'm babbling again... :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Replace James Holland with Stephen Bungay, and we're talking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airgunner Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 (edited) Agree, I agree, I do think Dermots pretty decent presenter, but the occasion is worthy of a real expert and enthusiast, james holland should have been the guy, then again should have been a big BBC 12 hour series presented by James Outside of our sphere of interest, no-one in the general public would have heard of James Holland. Nice he was there as the expert, but as this was a program that was looking to bring the battle into the public consciousness, and as such needed a presenter that the public knew. I good choice Dermot I thought, delivered the program well and seemed pretty enthusiastic about it all. And another +1 for Jonners post above. This program was all about the people, with a nod towards the equipment. Just how it should have been. Edited September 16, 2015 by Airgunner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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