Going back to the original question posed at the start of the thread, I do believe the RAF is missing a trick here.
The various "fly on the wall" documentaries featuring the Navy, of which the Queen Elizabeth series was the latest, are basically free adverts for the Navy and are almost 100% puffery reminiscent of 1950s Pathe newsreels. The degree of deference shown, and the almost sycophantic adherence to the party line could almost restore faith in the media, if you didnt know better!
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watching them, and they are interesting, but they could hardly be described as hard hitting, insightful or thought provoking. Nevertheless, I invariably come away from them with a warmish glow about the Navy.
Even allowing for the fact that their recruitment needs are different from the RAF's a bit of free goodwill never comes amiss, and could help address what seems to me to be a growing issue, that the visibility of the RAF to the UK public continues to diminish .
The TV companies need content to fill the airwaves, and this sort of thing is cheap to produce and hence attractive to them. Why not take advantage?