Ian McDonald was very carefully scripted.
True, and most of his scripts were written (or at least, vetted) by Sir Frank Cooper, then PUS at MoD and a former Spitfire pilot (and, briefly a PoW before his escape).
Perhaps time and impending old age are dulling the memory, but I vaguely remember the McDonald monotone talking about the C130 bombing efforts. Perhaps that was after the BBC had let the cat out of the bag though.